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 (1471)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
| ACLU-RDI 6553
This July 9, 2002 email from [redacted] to [redacted] re: Description of Physical Pressures, includes the contents of a memo from Jim Mitchell describing "potential physical and psychological pressures" to be used on a particular detainee. The ...
Non-legal Memo, Email
James Mitchell
Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Mock Burial, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Other Humiliation
Aug. 27, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6534
This heavily redacted memo contains notes from a meeting on specific interrogation techniques, including the waterboard, sleep deprivation, and water dousing, between DOJ attorneys, including Dan Levin and Steven Bradbury, and CIA personnel. ...
Non-legal Memo
Daniel B. Levin, Steven Bradbury
Waterboarding, Water dousing, Sleep deprivation, Use of water
May 12, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6532
This Operational Review of the CIA Detainee Program finds that the program is a success and provides "unique and invaluable intelligence." The review also finds that the procedures for handling detainees are "adequate and clear"and that the ...
June 10, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Henry A. Crumpton
Deputy Director for Operations
Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr.
Jan. 13, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6531
This heavily redacted memorandum contains comments from Medical Services on the Counterterrorism Detention and Investigation Program. The memorandum mentions OMS concerns about a conflict of interest in which the only individuals approved to ...
June 10, 2016
Non-legal Memo
John L. Helgerson
Jan. 22, 2003 | U.S.A. | ACLU-RDI 6530
N/A
June 13, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Cable
EIT
Jan. 22, 2003 | U.S.A. | ACLU-RDI 6529
N/A
June 13, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Cable
EIT
Oct. 29, 2003 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 6528
This report, issued by John Helgerson, examines whether CIA interrogators used unauthorized interrogation techniques on high value detainees, including Abd al-Rahman Al-Nashiri.
Non-legal Memo, Oversight Report, Investigative File
John Helgerson
John Helgerson, James Pavitt
Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Threat, Sleep deprivation
U.S.A. | ACLU-RDI 6527
N/A
June 13, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Stress positions
U.S.A. | ACLU-RDI 6526
N/A
June 13, 2016
Non-legal Memo
SERE
U.S.A. | ACLU-RDI 6524
N/A