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 (92)

Investigation into death of detainee after he was interrogated. The cause of death was undetermined but was investigated for murder. A sergeant stated that he struck the detainee with the butt of his weapon while trying to subdue him and the ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph, Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General
A soldier relates how a detainee said he was hit on the head with large object, which could be the butt of a rifle, but he did not see because he had a hood on. Detainee had a bump on his head.
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General
A detainee screener reported that a detainee who had attempted escape complained of rough treatment. The detainee did not sustain any marks or injuries from the rough treatment.
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General
Statement of an interrogator who noticed cuts and bruises on detainee during an interview. The detainee stated that while he was in a holding pen in Afghanistan he was told to stand with other detainees, but sat due to weak legs. The detainee ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General
This is a statement of an interpreter was states he was told by a detainee that the detainee was hit in the back of the head while hooded and in transit, possibly with the butt of a gun/rifle. The detainee was unable to identify or describe the ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General
This is a statement by a Sergeant interrogator/translator who reported four incidents of potential detainee abuse that he witnessed or were related to him by detainees. The first incident of possible detainee abuse was the rough handling of a ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Forced physical training
Medical report on a 20 year-old Iraqi insurgent wounded in a firefight with Coalition Forces. The report states the insurgent fired upon Coalition Forces and was return fired upon. As the insurgent attempted to explode an Improvised Explosive ...
Oct. 15, 2005
Medical (Physical (non-death)), Interview (Statement)
General, Physical assault
This document is a translated statement made by a detainee taken in to custody. Detainee describes abuse he received when taken in to custody at the Iraq/Saudi Arabia boarder. He said he was forced to exercise. He also stated to have been put in ...
Sept. 20, 2005
Investigative File (CID), Interview (Statement)
General, Stress positions, Forced physical training, Physical assault
A CID Report with several Commander's reports relating to the investigation and punishment of soldiers involved in the drowning death of an Iraqi civilian, Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil, in Samarra, Iraq on January 3, 2004. Mr. Fadhil drowned after being ...
Sept. 20, 2005
Investigative File (CID, AR 15-6), Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes), UCMJ (Article 15)
Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Other
Army Specialist describes being instructed to lie about the drowning at the Samarra Bridge in Samarra Iraq: "We agreed to say that we detained the two Iraqis, released them, last seeing them standing on the side of the road;" also notes that his ...
Sept. 20, 2005
Investigative File (AR 15-6), Interview (Statement)
General, Physical assault