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 (350)

This DOS Cable is from the US Embassy in Brussels, Belgium to the DOS Washington with a summary of media reactions in Brussels US policies & other matters.
This DOS Cable is from the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan to the DOS Washington with a summary of media reactions in Pakistan to US policies & other matters.
This DOS Cable to the US Mission, Geneva, Switzerland outlining the US position concerning the care, treatment & transfer of detainees captured and detained in the War on Terror and are in US custody.
Oct. 28, 2011
Cable
Kim R. Holmes
Kim R. Holmes, George W. Bush

A cable sent from Jose Rodriguez, the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations, to a CIA "black site" authorizing the destruction of 92 videotapes of interrogations that took place in 2002.

Apr. 15, 2010
Cable
Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr.
Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr.
State Department Cable Subject: Transfer of Detainees to Guantanamo, March 21, 2003. No further information or content
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Richard A. Boucher
This cable describes the request and process for releasing Iraqi detainees to the Iraqi officials and police to handle the detainees going forward. The standard is whether the Iraqis pose a threat to US and Coalition forces. This document is ...

This DOD cable discusses an article in the Irish Times that links flights from Shannon Airport to the flights detainees were placed on for transport and possible rendition. The Irish Times called them "Detainee Torture Flights". The ...

State Department cable originating from the embassy in Baghdad describing CPA Administrator Paul Bremer's meeting with Samarra community leaders. Their meeting included discussions of concerns over security and treatment of detainees in Iraq.

May 27, 2008
Cable
L. Paul Bremer
DOS Cable regarding a letter from Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo van Boven, to Ambassador Bremen regarding the detention of four individuals in Basra, Iraq. The letter reports that the detainees are being held incommunicado by the UK ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
L. Paul Bremer, Colin L. Powell, Thomas A. Johnson
This State Department Cable is entitled "Subject: February 9 Transfer of Detainees to Guantanamo". There is no other discernible information or context.