After September 11, 2001, U.S. officials authorized the cruel treatment and torture of prisoners held in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, and the CIA's secret prisons overseas.

This database documents the U.S. government's official experiment with torture. At present, the database contains well over 100,000 pages of government documents obtained primarily through Freedom of Information Act litigation and requests filed by the ACLU, and through litigation of Salim v. Mitchell, a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of the survivors and the family of a dead victim of the CIA torture program. To learn more about the database, please read the About and Search Help pages. If you're a developer, you can also access this data through our API.

Search Result (66)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 03, 2004 | DOA | OJAG | ACLU-RDI 2294

This document is the Court Martial - charge and prosecution package for Specialist Charles A. Graner, Jr. of the 372nd Military Police Company. SPC Graner was a key figure in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and this document contains the ...

Feb. 15, 2006
Photograph, UCMJ (Court-Martial), Judicial (Transcript)
Charles A. Graner, Jr.
Physical assault, Sexual, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Sexual, Religious, Forced physical training, Threat, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
June 12, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2298
Detainee alleged that while at Abu Ghraib prison several soldiers slapped; punched; choked; struck his head, shoulders, and arms with a retractable metal baton; jumped on him; forced him to lean against a wall in a seated position; forced him to ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Walling, Sexual, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Forced physical training
July 07, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 5019

This memo by Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, gives the chronology of his opposition (and the opposition of other members of the Navy) to the harsh interrogation techniques authorized for use at Guantanamo Bay by Secretary of Defense ...

Feb. 27, 2006
Legal Memo
Alberto Mora
Albert T. Church
Alberto Mora, Albert T. Church, Donald H. Rumsfeld, William J. Haynes, II, Mary Walker, Thomas F. Kranz, William R. Molzahn, Charlotte O. Wise, Richard W. Schieke, Michael F. Lohr, Kevin M. Sandkuhler, Peter Murphy, David Brant, Michael Gelles, Steven J. Morello, Thomas W. Taylor, Michael E. Dunlavey , Diane E. Beaver, Gordon R. England, William J. Fallon, Kevin P. Green, Susan M. Livingstone, George W. Bush, Jaymie Durnan, Paul Wolfowitz, Jane Dalton, Daniel Dell'Orto, John C. Yoo, Patrick Leahy, Daniel J. Ramos, James T. Hill, Geoffrey D. Miller
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Nov. 08, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2315
Report on an informal investigation conducted by Brigadier General Richard P. Formica into specific allegations of detainee abuse within CJSOTF-AP [Combined Joint Special Operating Task Force – Arabian Peninsula] and 5th SF [Special Forces] Group ...
June 15, 2006
Oversight Report, Investigative File
Richard P. Formica
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay, Richard P. Formica
Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
May 28, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2457
Letter is a response to questions from Senator Leahy regarding the treatment of detainees in US custody. The letter denies the use of hoods, stripping or stress positions. States that "Lt Gen. Sanchez's 05/13/2004 memo prohibits the use of ...
June 30, 2006
Letter
Patrick Leahy, Ricardo Sanchez
Stress positions, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Environmental manipulation
USAF | ACLU-RDI 2467
This memo concerns the legal investigation and determination by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations following the discovery of photos depicting detainees bound, hooded and apparently abused while in custody. The photos were discovered ...
June 30, 2006
Legal Memo
Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Environmental manipulation
July 09, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2558

Statement of Sergeant First Class who served as an interrogator. Describes interrogations, and states that only specific interrogators conduct interrogations. Continues, "Our command has authorization to detain people longer than 72 ...

June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Assault/death, Cramped confinement, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Mar. 29, 2005 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4795
Interview of FBI Official-member of the Behavioral Science Division, interviewee was stationed at Guantanamo, Bay from mid-September 2002 until the end of October 2002. The agent stated that he witnessed at least three incidents of abuse, ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes)
John T. Furlow
Physical assault, General, Threat, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Religious, Forced grooming, Other
Aug. 26, 2006 | CID | ACLU-RDI 4528
On 24 Dec 2003 American forces raided a house in the Slaikh Alrabee neighborhood of Baghdad. The men inside were taken in to custody with blindfolds and cuffed behind their backs. The men allege that during their arrest they were abused by being ...
Sept. 24, 2008
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming
Feb. 22, 2007 | CID | ACLU-RDI 4537

This CID Report investigates numerous allegations of abuse that occurred in September and November of 2003 in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib Prison. Included in the file is the testimony of detainee victims and members of the 372nd Military Police ...

Nov. 05, 2008
Investigative File (CID)
Habibullah, Dilawar
Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Sexual, Physical assault, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation