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 (128)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 30, 2005 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4551

An OLC memo addressing whether certain enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA are consistent with the United States's obligations under Article 16 of the United Nations Convention Agsinst Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or ...

Apr. 16, 2009
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury, Daniel B. Levin, Jack L. Goldsmith, Jay S. Bybee, George J. Tenet, William J. Haynes, II
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Riduan "Hambali" Isamuddin, Majid Khan, Mohd Farik Bin Amin, Jose Padilla
EIT, SERE, 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, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity
May 10, 2005 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4986

An OLC memo addressing whether the combined use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (including waterboarding) violates the prohibition on torture.  The memo concludes that it would not.

Apr. 16, 2009
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo, James B. Comey, Jay S. Bybee, Daniel B. Levin
EIT, SERE, 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, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other
Dec. 03, 2014 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 5935
In March 2009, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence decided to initiate a review of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. On December 13, 2012 the Committee voted to approve its Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention ...
Apr. 08, 2009
Oversight Report
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Website
John Helgerson, Alberto Gonzalez, David Addington, Bruce Jessen, James Mitchell , Steven Bradbury, Jose Rodriguez, Rizzo, Condoleezza Rice, Richard B. Cheney, George Bush, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, William "Jim" Haynes, John Yoo, Jay Bybee
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Other, Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Sexual, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial, Rendition, Family/others, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Forced grooming, Forced physical training
July 13, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4959
This email is a response to a Bureau wide memo sent by Steve McCraw to illicit information from FBI agents who toured through Guantanamo Bay to report any suspected or witnessed abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. This FBI agent related the ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo, Email
Steven C. McCraw
Cramped confinement, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound
USAF | ACLU-RDI 2467
This memo concerns the legal investigation and determination by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations following the discovery of photos depicting detainees bound, hooded and apparently abused while in custody. The photos were discovered ...
June 30, 2006
Legal Memo
Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Environmental manipulation
June 04, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2525
Memo regarding interviews conducted at the DCCP (Displaced Civilian Collection Point) on May 31, 2004. Detainee claims that "while at an unknown location he received no food or water and could not sleep due to very loud American music blaring the ...
June 30, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound
July 09, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2558

Statement of Sergeant First Class who served as an interrogator. Describes interrogations, and states that only specific interrogators conduct interrogations. Continues, "Our command has authorization to detain people longer than 72 ...

June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Assault/death, Cramped confinement, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Threat, Environmental manipulation
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2600
Sworn statement of a detainee. States that, following his capture on April 27, 2004, he was put in a compartment so small that he could only sit in it. States he was severely beaten in an attempt to force a confession, threatened with rape, ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Dietary manipulation
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2601
Sworn statement of a detainee. States that following his capture, he was held for two and a half days in a box too small for him to stand. States, "I couldn't sleep in two days. They were playing very loud Western music, like rock music." States ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Light or sound, Environmental manipulation
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2602
Statement of detainee captured by Special Forces and taken to a place that he believed belonged to the CIA. States that he was held in a box "one meter long and one meter high," given no food for three days, and prevented from sleeping by "loud ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling