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 (146)

USMC Investigation into incident of abuse where a superior officer ordered a subordinates to take a detainees’ money, strip them naked to their underwear and release them in their underwear. Some soldiers protested. Investigator recommends ...
May 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
John F. Kelly
Threat, Assault/death, Nudity
During a raid, jointly conducted by U.S. Marine Corps personnel with the 24th MEU (SOC) and Iraqi National Guards (INGs), a weapons cache was found. It was alleged that ING personnel slapped the owner of the home during an interrogation and shot ...
May 15, 2006
Investigative File
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death
This is the Court-martial record of trial with the verbatum transcript of the proceeding of Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits. Spc. Sivits pleaded guilty to some charges and was found guilty of others. The charges were that on November 8, 2003 Spc. ...
Feb. 15, 2006
UCMJ (Court-Martial), Judicial (Transcript)
Jeremy C. Sivits
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Forced physical training
This Article 15 procedure was brought against a soldier who was present during an interrogation of a detainee at a jail facility in Iraq. The soldier was accused of punching the detainee with a closed fist; firing a weapon near his head; and ...
Feb. 15, 2006
UCMJ (Article 15)
General, Assault/death, Family/others, Physical assault, Threat
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 ...