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 (84)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
CIA | ACLU-RDI 6552
This report details the investigation into the death of Gul Rahman. This re-released report includes a description of psychologist Bruce Jessen and his role in the interrogation of Gul Rahman.
Oversight Report
CIA Office of the Inspector General
Bruce Jessen, John Helgerson, James Mitchell
Gul Rahman
EIT, Use of water, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Attention grasp, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Nudity
| ACLU-RDI 6663
This CIA cable outlines the recommended interrogation plan for Gul Rahman and states that it should include "environmental deprivation" and "concentrated interrogation exposure." Specifically, sleep loss and fatigue are suggested as most ...
Sept. 02, 2016
Cable
Bruce Jessen
Gul Rahman
EIT, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation
| ACLU-RDI 6675
This document contains interview notes of a redacted official discussing their knowledge of the events surrounding Gul Rahman's death. The interview discusses different detention conditions at the COBALT site and the kinds of conditions Gul ...
Sept. 02, 2016
Cable, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Bruce Jessen
Gul Rahman
EIT, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Nudity
ODNI | ACLU-RDI 6658
This document is a memorandum from the chief of the Counterintelligence Evaluation Branch of the Counterespionage Group in the Counterintelligence Center about an interview conducted with John B. Jessen regarding the death of Gul Rahman.
Sept. 02, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Bruce Jessen
Gul Rahman
EIT, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Attention grasp, Walling, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity
OLC | ACLU-RDI 6559
This memorandum from Assistant Attorney General John Bybee to John Rizzo provides the Office of the Assistant Attorney General's view on whether certain proposed conduct during the interrogation of al Qaeda Operative Abu Zubaydah would violate ...
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation
OLC | ACLU-RDI 6591
This memorandum from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo analyzes whether certain enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA in the interrogation of high value al Qaeda detainees would violate US law under Article 16. The memorandum concludes ...
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity
| ACLU-RDI 6703
This memo includes: 1) a chronology detailing the evolution of the CIA's High-Value Detainee Interrogation Techniques, how they were defined, legalized, and authorized; 2) a report on the intelligence collected after the application of the ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah, Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi, Mohammed Rahim Noori, Walid Bin Attash, Abd al Aziz Ali, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Issa al-Hindi, Hassan Ghul, Riduan "Hambali" Isamuddin, Abu Talha al-Pakistani, Jafaar al-Tayyar, Jose Padilla, Binyam Mohamed
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Mock Burial, Rendition, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Physical assault
| ACLU-RDI 6736
This CIA list includes Abu Zubaydah's reported terrorist activity, injuries at the time of capture, highlights from reporting, legal authority for interrogation techniques used, and interrogation techniques used on Abu Zubaydah.
Dec. 20, 2016
Chart/List
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Waterboarding, Face slap or insult slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Use of water, Physical assault
| ACLU-RDI 6769
This cable describes the current state of the interrogations for Abu Zubaydah and recommends the use of sleep deprivation to "degrade his ability to keep up his full mental capacities."
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Sleep deprivation
| ACLU-RDI 6555
This document is a CIA Memo drafted for the Deputy Director for Operations via the Associate Deputy Director for Operations/Counterintelligence. The previous release of this document (on June 13, 2016) included more redactions such as Bruce ...
Sept. 30, 2016
Non-legal Memo
James Pavitt
James Pavitt, Bruce Jessen, James Mitchell
Gul Rahman
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation