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 (57)

This is a heavily redacted version of an OLC memo later released in less-redacted form (at ACLU-RDI 4548).  This unredacted portions of this version of the memo from the OLC to the CIA discuss the anti-torture statute 18 U.S.C. 2340, ...

July 24, 2008
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
Jay S. Bybee

This fax contains a response letter to The Human Rights watch Ex. Dir. Kenneth Roth addressing his points made in an earlier letter to Sec. Def. Rumsfeld about releasing Taliban armed forces from Guantanamo since the war in Afghanistan is ...

Letter from John Walker Lindh's attorney, James J. Brosnahan, requesting information on the location of his client, detained enemy combatant, John Walker Lindh. Mr. Brosnahan states in his letter that he needs the appropriate government official ...
This August 1, 2002 OLC memo from Jay Bybee to John Rizzo discusses whether certain proposed conduct in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah would violate the prohibition against torture found at Section 2340A of title 18 of the U.S. Code. The memo ...
This email from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller discusses the Inspector General Report concerning the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques.
Email
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, Scott W. Muller
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
This May 30, 2005 OLC memo from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo discusses whether certain enhanced interrogation techniques employed by the CIA in the interrogation of high value al Qaeda detainees are consistent with U.S. obligations under Article ...
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo
EIT
This August 31, 2006 OLC memo from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo discusses whether particular "standards conditions of detention" at certain CIA facilities located overseas are consistent with the applicable standards of the Detainee Treatment Act.
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury
This July 20, 2007 OLC memo from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo discusses whether the CIA may lawfully employ six enhanced interrogation techniques in the interrogation of "high value detainees who are members of al Qaeda and associated groups. ...

An OLC memo from John Yoo to John Rizzo regarding "what is necessary to establish the crime of torture."  The memo states that an individual must act with the "specific intent" to inflict severe mental pain or ...

Legal Memo, Letter
John C. Yoo
John A. Rizzo
John C. Yoo, John A. Rizzo, Jennifer Koester