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 (74)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
June 23, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 1176
Memo for the Record concerning an AR 15-6 investigation findings of investigation in to alleged detainee abuse and mock executions by U.S. forces. The investigator cannot determine if the mock executions were actually conducted or just perceived ...
May 16, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File (AR 15-6)
Raymond T. Odierno
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial
June 25, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 1177
Sworn statement of a soldier who witnessed an incident where an Army Lieutenant abused a detainee and threatened them with mock executions. Sworn statements for investigation. Soldiers state that they were informed they could fire warning shots ...
May 16, 2005
Investigative File
Assault/death, Threat
Apr. 23, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 983
A soldier took a bottle that a detainee had urinated in and threatened to force the detainee to drink the urine. The detainee was not assaulted or forced to consume the urine. Punishment for the soldier included psychiatric counseling; clean all ...
Apr. 18, 2005
Investigative File
Threat, Assault/death
May 04, 2006 | CID | ACLU-RDI 160
Military Police Investigative Report in to allegations of a soldier in Afghanistan pointing a gun at the head of a restrained detainee. The soldier offered a statement in which he states 1) the gun was a BB gun and not his service weapon; and 2) ...
Apr. 05, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions
Sept. 22, 2003 | CID | ACLU-RDI 171
Email with an executive summary of CID investigation into a Lieutenant Colonel's admission of issuing a death threat and firing his pistol next to the head of a detainee (an uncooperative Iraqi police officer suspected of being part of a plot to ...
Apr. 05, 2005
Investigative File (CID), Email
Bruce E. Davis
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death
Jan. 09, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 172
Email containing an executive summary of CID investigation into allegations that a soldier threatened a detainee with a gun, fired the gun on the ground next to the detainee, and "butt-stroked" the detainee during a "knock-and-search" operation ...
Apr. 05, 2005
Investigative File (CID), Email
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death
June 28, 2004 | CID | OJAG | ACLU-RDI 176
Email with an executive summary of investigations into a recordable compact disc containing images of suspected detainee abuse in in Afghanistan between January 11 and January 19, 2004. The images on the CD depicted U.S. soldiers holding weapons ...
Apr. 05, 2005
Investigative File (CID), Email
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Oct. 13, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 149

A CID Investigation was initiated based on the claims by a Sergeant that he witnessed several counter-intelligence (CI) agents abuse Iraqi detainees during interrogations while he was stationed in Samarra, Iraq. The Sergeant stated he saw CI ...

Mar. 02, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death
Oct. 25, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 112

Investigation into allegations by senior Psyops officers in Afghanistan who witnessed indiscriminate assaults in May 2004 by Special Forces on villagers during raids in Gurjay and Surkhagen. Abuses included hitting and kicking villagers in ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death
Oct. 15, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 114

Iraqi detainee alleged that he was taken from his cell to another location by plain-clothed Americans who beat him in the head and stomach, dislocated his arms, "stepped on the [his] nose" and broke it, and stuck a pistol in his ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, Thom Jones
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death