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 (44)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
| ACLU-RDI 6738
This CIA memo labeled "Legal Background" describes Title 18's probation against torture in the US criminal code and how the phrase "severe mental pain or physical suffering" is described. The memo states that at this time, none of the ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
| ACLU-RDI 6765
This cable discusses the proposed strategy for the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and the involvement on contract psychologist Dr. James Mitchell.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
| ACLU-RDI 6769
This cable describes the current state of the interrogations for Abu Zubaydah and recommends the use of sleep deprivation to "degrade his ability to keep up his full mental capacities."
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Sleep deprivation
| ACLU-RDI 6688
This cable includes the bios of the detainees and lists the EITs they were subjected to while they were in CIA custody. It is redacted almost in full with the exception of information on the following three detainees: Suleiman Abdullah, Gul ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Gul Rahman, Abdul Karim
EIT, Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Nudity