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 (6709)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Dec. 29, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4180
Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. The letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
Dec. 29, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4442
Checklist of Key Issues for Meeting with Swedish State Secretary Lars Danielsson. Topics were Turkey/EU, North Korea, Iraq/WMD, Partnership for Peace/NATO enlargement, Guantanamo Swede, and Global War on Terror. Contents redacted.
Dec. 29, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6051
The document is a heavily redacted daily situation report from the Iraqi Task Force, detailing personnel numbers and status as well as a variety of figures related to detainees during the reporting period - including captures, transfers, and ...
Dec. 30, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2429

Combatant Status Review Tribunal Decision Report Enclosure 1 on the status of a detainee as an Enemy Combatant. The report states that the detainee is properly classified as an enemy combatant because he is affiliated with the Taliban and Al ...

Dec. 30, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 3547
Department of Justice Office of Legal Council on Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A. This memo superceding the August 2002 memo interpreting the anti-torture statute. The memo disagrees with the previous memo's ...
June 01, 2005
Legal Memo
Daniel B. Levin
James B. Comey
Daniel B. Levin, James B. Comey, George W. Bush
Dec. 30, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4585

This document was originally released on June 1, 2005 (ACLU-RDI 3547).  This OLC memo supercedes the August 2002 memo interpreting the anti-torture statute. The memo disagrees with the previous memo's conclusions that torture is ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
Daniel B. Levin
James B. Comey
Daniel B. Levin, James B. Comey, George W. Bush
Dec. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4586

A background paper on the CIA's combined use of interrogation techniques, addressed to Daniel Levin, Acting Assistant Attorney General. The document states that "Effective interrogation is based on the concept of using both physical and ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Non-legal Memo, Letter
Daniel B. Levin
Daniel B. Levin
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity
Dec. 30, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6064
The document is an internal FBI email regarding the Office of Inspector General's initiation of a full investigation into the FBI's handling of allegations of detainee abuse, including any FBI personnel who may have either witnessed or ...
Email
John S. Pistole
Robert S. Mueller
John S. Pistole, Robert S. Mueller, Gary M. Bald, Valerie E. Caproni, Willie T. Hulon, Cassandra M. Chandler, Eleni P. Kalisch, Toni M. Fogle, Thomas J. Harrington
Dec. 30, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6052
The document is a heavily redacted daily situation report from the Iraqi Task Force, detailing personnel numbers and status as well as a variety of figures related to detainees during the reporting period - including captures, transfers, and ...
Dec. 30, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 6390
This document is the first page of a memorandum concerning government responsibilities relating to torture under the U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT) and 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A.
June 15, 2011
Legal Memo
James B. Comey