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 (68)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
June 05, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 906
Interviewee (title and length of assignment unknown). Interviewee recalled witnessing two incidents. In the first incident, the detainee was being interrogated, and at one point [redacted] told the detainee to roll down his jumpsuit and ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Threat, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation
Apr. 30, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 425

Letter from Detainee's counsel to Army Claims Service for alleged abuse, torture and other mistreatment by U.S. Army in Iraq. The attorney is making the claim under the Military Claimns ack and seeks compensation in excess of $100,000.00. The ...

Feb. 28, 2005
Legal Memo, Letter
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Assault/death, Rendition, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Threat
Nov. 17, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 116

An investigation into allegations by an Iraqi detinee that interrogators hand- and leg-cuffed him to the floor and pushed him over while blindfolded, causing severe pain and nerve bruising in his wrist. the investigation concluded that there ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Nov. 03, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 117

An investigation into allegations that U.S. forces had kicked a detainee in the legs and back while he was blindfolded and handcuffed so tightly that he received permanent nerve damage in his wrist. Investigation concluded that the allegations ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, General, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
June 10, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 14

Approximately 73-year-old Iraqi woman reported that she had been subjected to assault and sexual abuse, including being sodomized with a stick and touched in private areas; that she was forced to "swim" in water thrown on ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Jacqueline J. Scott, Nelson van Eck, Thom Jones
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Sexual
July 28, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 98
CID Report of investigation concerning alleged abuse of detainee during interrogation. Detainee was captured on June 19, 2004 and transported “to what he described as one of the Presidential Palaces.” He was then interrogated. The detainee was ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General, Isolation
Aug. 02, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 101
CID Report of investigation regarding alleged assault on detainee. Detainee was captured on July 3, 2004 in Baghdad. He was transported to a detention facility near Al Satar City, on Rashad Base, where he stayed for one night. He was then ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General, Isolation
Dec. 17, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 226
This is a Special Incident Report by the 320th Military Police Battalion of a report of an attack on a Military policeman at Camp Ganci, Abu Ghraib prison. The report states: During prisoner feeding, [one prisoner] became disriptive requiring MP ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Investigative File
Isolation
Oct. 03, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 237
Interrogation Rules of Engagement for the 205th MI Brigade, Iraq. Sets forth techniques for use on detainees, of which, including isolation for more than 30 days and the presence of military working dogs, requires the Commanding General's ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Non-legal Memo, Other
Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature
Feb. 14, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 256
Interview conducted by Gen. Taguba of Lt. Colonel James O'Hare of the 800th Military Police Brigade. The Lt. Colonel goes in to detail about how he came to his assignment in Iraq as well as his experiences at Abu Ghraib prison. On his experience ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Henry B. Nelson, Gary M. Kluka, John E. Davis, James E. O'Hare, William D. Proietto, Paul Hill, Ricardo Sanchez
Threat, Assault/death, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Nudity