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 (124)

This Army memorandum concerns dismissing certain charges against certain soldiers involved in detainee abuse to avoid Court-Martial proceedings and the legal consequences of such an action. The contents of the memo refers to the soldiers ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Legal Memo, Interview (Statement), UCMJ (Court-Martial)
Raymond Odierno
Raymond T. Odierno
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Assault/death, Use of phobias, Threat
This document is a letter from the defense counsel of an accused soldier for an adjournment in the proceedings for the soldier to be assigned new defense counsel and to allow that new counsel to prepare for trial in the matter. The facts of the ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Letter, UCMJ (Article 32)
Sexual, Assault/death, Family/others, Hooding/Goggling, Physical assault, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Email refers to a proposed press release from the Commanding General discussing the detainee death and abuse investigations. [The press release is attached, the first page of the attachment is blank]. The press release explains that there are ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Email
Donald J. Ryder
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Other
Email includes two proposed copies of Donald J. Ryder's briefing to the Senate Arms Service Committee. One of the briefings is enclosed, it mentions that there are 69 CID investigations, forty-two of the sixty-nine cases involved incidents that ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Email
Donald J. Ryder
Carl Levin, John Warner, Donald J. Ryder
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Other
Detainee alleged he was detained with a bag over his head for 14 days, was beat in the stomach and kidney, hit on the lips, thrown into concertina wire. He states that all his statements were made under torture. When the detainee was initially ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death

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 ...

A detainee claims that he was in a vehicle with other Iraqi men who possessed AK-47s. The men attempted to avoid a road-side checkpoint and were stopped by US gunfire. While the men were detained at the roadside, several Iraqi civilians began to ...
Detainee reported that he was arrested after US forces found a weapon in his home. He was detained at Al Sijood Palace, Iraq, and it was during this detention he states he was hooded; flexicuffed; punched; kicked; yelled at; and threatened. ...
This CID investigation concerns an investigation in to detainee abuse in Afghanistan. A New York Times newspaper was releasing a story on 12 May 04, concerning allegations of a Afghan Police Colonel that was alleged to be abused by U.S. Forces in ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Sexual, Assault/death, Physical assault, Threat
Summary of investigations into abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq. 56 incidents not in facility: 7 death investigations. (3 homicides. 1 justifiable homicide. 3 investigations pending). 19 thefts. 29 assaults. 1 sexual assualt. 141 ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, Assault/death, Threat