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 (49)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
July 29, 2009 | OPR | ACLU-RDI 5021

 [Add description, but leave in the paragraph below.]

Five months after releasing this report to the ACLU, the government released slightly less redacted versions of 7 pages in the report.  You can view those 7 pages, ...

Oct. 30, 2009 | DOJ-OIG | ACLU-RDI 5015

This document is the result of a review conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) involvement in and observations of detainee interrogations in ...

Oct. 30, 2009
Oversight Report
Antonio Taguba, George R. Fay, Michael Chertoff, Albert T. Church, John D. Ashcroft, Larry Thompson, James R. Schlesinger, Robert S. Mueller, Arthur M. Cummings, II, Michael E. Dunlavey
Abu Zubaydah, Mohammed al Qahtani, Moazzam Begg, Saleh Mukleif Saleh, Mohamedou Ould Slahi , Mohammed El Gharani, Muhammad al Awfi, Ramzi Bin al Shibh
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Walling, Sexual, Threat, Assault/death, Rendition, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Religious, Forced grooming, Forced physical training, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity
Sept. 21, 2009 | CIA | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4995

A Vaughn Index of 171 OLC documents responsive to the ACLU's FOIA requests of October 7, 2003 and May 25, 2004. The government originally withheld 181 OLC documents in full, and Judge Hellerstein upheld those withholdings. The ACLU appealed. ...

Sept. 21, 2009
Judicial (Vaughn Declaration/Index)
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein
Sept. 21, 2009 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4993

A Vaughn Declaration from David Barron, OLC, relating to 171 OLC documents responsive to the ACLU's FOIA requests of October 7, 2003 and May 25, 2004.  The government originally withheld 181 OLC documents in full, and Judge Hellerstein ...

Sept. 21, 2009
Judicial (Affidavit/Declaration, Vaughn Declaration/Index)
David J. Barron
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein
David J. Barron, Barack H. Obama, Eric H. Holder, Jr., Dennis C. Blair, Steven G. Bradbury, Marilyn A. Dorn, Sean H. Lane, Heather K. McShain
EIT
Mar. 06, 2009 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4603
Letter from the Department of Justice to Judge Hellerstein proposing a schedule of production for certain Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents to be provided to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The letter addresses the issues of; ...
Mar. 06, 2009
Letter, Judicial
Lev L. Dassin | Sean H. Lane | Peter M. Skinner
Alvin K. Hellerstein
Sean H. Lane, Peter M. Skinner, Lev L. Dassin, John H. Durham, Alvin K. Hellerstein
Mar. 06, 2009 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4604
This Department of Justice production pursuant to ACLU v. DOD, No. 1:04-CV-4151 (S.D.N.Y.). The list is of videotapes that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) either had or has in its possession and are either available or destroyed.
Mar. 02, 2009 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4602

A letter from the DOJ to Judge Hellerstein regarding the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes and the ACLU's motion to hold the CIA in contempt for that destruction.

Mar. 02, 2009
Letter, Judicial
Lev L. Dassin | Sean H. Lane | Peter M. Skinner
Alvin K. Hellerstein
John H. Durham, Sean H. Lane, Peter M. Skinner, Lev L. Dassin, Alvin K. Hellerstein
June 11, 2009 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4558

An OLC memo withdrawing the interrogation memo of July 20, 2007.

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
David J. Barron
Eric H. Holder, Jr.
David J. Barron, Eric H. Holder, Jr., John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury
Jan. 15, 2009 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4547

An OLC memo stating that "the purpose of this memorandum is to confirm that certain propositions stated in several opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel in 2001-2003 respecting the allocation of authorities between the President ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury, William J. Haynes, II, Jay S. Bybee, Daniel J. Bryant, Patrick Philbin, John C. Yoo, Alberto R. Gonzales, Edward M. Kennedy, Richard J. Durbin, John B. Bellinger, III, C. Kevin Marshall, Bradley T. Smith, David S. Kris