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 (53)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
DOJ-OIG | ACLU-RDI 6456
Audio of an interview of Moazzem Begg, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, conducted by the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General, as part of its report on the FBI's involvement in the mistreatment of detainees. You can listen to the audio below ...
Interview (Statement)
Moazzam Begg
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Rendition, Family/others, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation
Aug. 01, 2002 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6542
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 ...
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
Jay Bybee, John A. Rizzo
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound
OLC | ACLU-RDI 6593
This legal memorandum from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo analyzes whether particular conditions of detention at certain CIA facilities overseas are consistent with the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005. The memorandum concludes that conditions at ...
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo
Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming