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 (156)

This document is a list featuring descriptions of various abuses that occurred throughout Afghanistan. Most of the abuses involved slapping and punching.
June 15, 2011
Chart/List
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Facial hold
This is an NCIS investigation into the death of Ismail Na-Ama Ahmed, an Iraqi civilian who died following a beating he received by Iraqi Police (IP) following his arrest and detention at the Echo Company Forward Operating Base (FOB) Haditha, ...
Jan. 21, 2011
Investigative File (NCIS), Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes)
Ismail Na-Ama Ahmed
Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap
This is the Autopsy Report Autopsy Report: Hussein Farhad Ali, a detainee who was captured by US forces in Mosul, Iraq. It is reported that Mr. Ali died within 72 hours after being taken in to custody. The Report indicates that Mr. Ali suffered ...
A CID prosecution of a Sergeant First Class (SFC) for the murder of Iraqi civilian, Salih Taher Khaleefa, and the maltreatment of an unidentified Iraqi juvenile. The investigation found that the SFC "shot and killed Mr. Khaleefa without ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Investigative File (CID), Notes, Photograph, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Salih Taher Khaleefa
Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Threat, Assault/death, Other Humiliation

The DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) released this report investigating whether Department of Justice attorneys violated their ethical obligations in issuing several memoranda authorizing the use of Enhanced Interrogation ...

July 19, 2010
Oversight Report
Frank Wolf, Larry Thompson, Ted Ullyot, George J. Tenet, Steven G. Bradbury, Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo, Patrick Leahy, David S. Addington, John D. Ashcroft, John B. Bellinger, III, David Brant, Michael Chertoff, Adam Ciongoli, Paul Clement, James B. Comey, Alice Fisher, Timothy E. Flanigan, Ari Fleischer, Jack L. Goldsmith, Alberto R. Gonzales, Stephen Hadley, William J. Haynes, II, John L. Helgerson, H. Marshall Jarrett, Patrick Leahy, Daniel B. Levin, John McCain, John McLaughlin, Paul McNulty, Harriet Miers, Alberto Mora, Steven J. Morello, Scott W. Muller, Robert S. Mueller, Patrick Philbin, Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, John A. Rizzo, Chuck Rosenberg, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Michael Mukasey, Mark Filip, Barack H. Obama, David Margolis, Michael Gelles, Robert J. Delahunty, Diane E. Beaver, Thomas J. Romig, David Leitch, John B. Wiegmann, Alan Kreczko, Christopher Schroeder
Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Mohammed al Qahtani, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other
This CIA memo provides guidelines on interrogations of detainees, Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. The memo is divided into the following sections: 1) Permissible Interrogation Techniques; 2) Medical and Psychological Personnel; 3) Interrogation ...

A letter from Scott Muller, general counsel of the CIA, to John Yoo, OLC, enclosing a list of legal principles applicable to the CIA's detention and interrogation of detainees, including the use of the "enhanced interrogation ...

A list of bullet points discussing legal principles applicable to the CIA's detention and interrogation of detainees, including the use of the "enhanced interrogation techniques."  Many of the principles listed appear in the ...