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 (944)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Feb. 07, 2003 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6818
This memo from John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, to the President of the American Bar Association provides the legal justification for the treatment of U.S. Civilians as Enemy Combatants, specifically regarding their lack of right ...
Jan. 07, 2009
Non-legal Memo
John C. Yoo
William J. Haynes, II
Robert Hirshon , Alfred P. Carlton Jr.
Jan. 28, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4500

This is a heavily redacted version of a CIA memo later released in less-redacted form.  The less-redacted version is available at ACLU-RDI 4562.  This version of the document shows that CIA interrogators were permitted to use both ...

July 24, 2008
Non-legal Memo
George Tenet
George J. Tenet
EIT
Sept. 05, 2003 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4523

A heavily redacted summary of an interview by the CIA's Office of the Inspector General, of Scott W. Muller, the CIA's general counsel. The interview summary discusses viewing videotapes, the approval of waterboarding during the interrogation ...

May 27, 2008
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Scott W. Muller
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
Mar. 14, 2003 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 5018

This legal memo from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Justice Department to the Department of Defense analyzes the legal standards governing military interrogations of "alien unlawful combatans" held outside the United ...

Apr. 01, 2008
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
William J. Haynes, II
John C. Yoo, William J. Haynes, II, Timothy E. Flanigan, Alberto R. Gonzales, Patrick Philbin, Jay S. Bybee, Daniel J. Bryant, Robert J. Delahunty, Ari Fleischer, William Howard Taft, IV, John B. Bellinger, III, James C. Ho, Daniel Dell'Orto
May 08, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4854
Executive Summary discussing the U.S. Southern Command's request to use additional interrogation techniques. On April 16, 2003, the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, approved the following techniques: change of scenery down, which was ...
Jan. 05, 2007
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld
Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other
June 30, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4855
The general scope of the email is the treatment of detainees, enemy prisoners of war (EPWs) and 'illegal combatants.' The author mentioned that he/she did not believe a particular team was following the rules outlined in Army Regulation 190-8. ...
Oct. 03, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4856
The Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center's interrogation standing operating procedures, among other rules and principles, it provides an interrogation code of conduct.
June 02, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4789
Memorandum to General Geoffrey Miller regarding Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), Donald Rumsfeld's memorandum. The memo to Gen. Miller seeks clarification on the use of certain techniques, including a concern about the removal of the Koran from ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo
James T. Hill
Geoffrey D. Miller
Geoffrey D. Miller, Donald H. Rumsfeld, James T. Hill
Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Other
Sept. 06, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 4806
This memo is a legal review of the Army Regulation 15-6 investigation into the death of Zaid Muhammed Tariq, an Iraqi national detainee. On August 22, 2003, at the "(Dakota) Detention Facility," officers found Mr. Tariq on the floor of his cell ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File (AR 15-6)
Martin E. Dempsey
Zaid Muhammed Tariq
July 04, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 4807
FRAGO 383A is a fragmentary Order directing soldiers to treat Iraqi civilians and detainees in a professional manner. The order prohibits the maltreatment of civilians or detainees in Iraq, the order defines maltreatment and provides a number of ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Other
Martin E. Dempsey
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Other Humiliation