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 (4745)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Nov. 30, 2001 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6827
November 2001 memo from Yoo and Delahunty to Gonzales summarizing treaties and laws applicable to the conflict in Afghanistan and to the treatment of persons captured by U.S. Armed Forces.
Dec. 15, 2009
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
Alberto R. Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales, John Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty, George W. Bush
Feb. 07, 2002 | WH | ACLU-RDI 6822
This February 7, 2002 memorandum announces to the vice president, secretary of state, attorney general, CIA director, and others that the President accepts the legal conclusions of the Department of Justice that the Geneva Conventions do not ...
May 15, 2012
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
Richard B. Cheney
Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Jay B. Stephens, Andrew Card, George J. Tenet, Richard B. Myers
Aug. 16, 2002 | ACLU-RDI 6821
This document contains a citizen's letter to President Bush voicing disapproval that Afghan prisoners are not treated like prisoners of war and includes an attached article from the San Francisco Chronicle. The document also contains an August ...
May 15, 2012
Letter
George W. Bush
Anne Crowther
Sept. 04, 2008 | WH | DOD | ACLU-RDI 6819
This is a memo from the Chief of the White House Liaison Section, Executive Services Division, Washington Headquarters Services, DOD to the National Security Council Records Management Office reporting that the "Under Secretary of Defense for ...
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.
Dec. 01, 2008 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 6817
This heavily redacted cable discusses a meeting at Embassy Suva to discuss a relocation/asylum proposal. The memo also discusses a meeting between Ambassador McGann and New Zealand High Commissioner to Kiribati Robert Kawai to discuss assistance ...
May 15, 2012
Cable
American Embassy Suva
Secstate
C. Steven McGann
Feb. 18, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 6816
This memo from Paul Wolfowitz, US Deputy Secretary of Defense, to the Attorney General and the directors of the CIA and FBI provides notes and talking points on the most dangerous enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo to provide to the press in ...
Dec. 15, 2009
Non-legal Memo
Paul Wolfowitz
Alberto R. Gonzales | John McLaughlin | James B. Comey
Geoffrey D. Miller, Paul W. Butler
Abu Zubaydah
July 27, 2005 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 6814
This memo from Donald Rumsfeld to Stephen Hadley, Cheney, Gonzales, Rice, and Dan Bartlett provides a set of metrics for detention operations through July 20, 2005.
Dec. 15, 2009
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld
Stephen Hadley
Richard B. Cheney, Alberto R. Gonzales, Condoleeza Rice, Daniel Bartlett
Feb. 28, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6804
This memorandum authored by Bruce Jessen and others to Col. Coomey on February 28, 2002 includes specific recommendations for interrogation procedures based on conditions at Camp X-Ray. The memorandum contains "Cardinal Pre-Conditions for ...
Feb. 03, 2017
Non-legal Memo
Bruce Jessen
Bruce Jessen
EIT, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
May 27, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6798
A letter from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller regarding the CIA Inspector General's Special Review of the CIA's interrogation program. The letter expresses concern at the fact that, according to the Special Review, aspects of the CIA's ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, Scott W. Muller, John A. Rizzo
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding