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.

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This letter from John Helgerson, Inspector General of the CIA, to Jack Goldsmith of the OLC addresses the DOJ's proposed modifications to the IG report. Helgerson writes, "we have carefully reviewed the comments of the [DOJ] regarding the Special ...

This memo from the CIA's Inspector General, John L. Helgerson, notifies members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives of investigations into the deaths of Manadal al-Jamaidi and Avid Hamad Mahawish Al-Malalawi in Iraq.

This letter from John Helgerson, Inspector General of the CIA, to Jack Goldsmith of the OLC addresses the DOJ's proposed modifications to the IG report. Helgerson writes, "we have carefully reviewed the comments of the [DOJ] regarding the ...

This May 7, 2004 Special Review by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General examines the CIA’s counterterrorism detention and interrogation activities, including the apparently unauthorized use of mock executions, a hand gun, a ...

Page 36 of the CIA Inspector General's Special Review of the CIA's interrogation program.  The page describes the interrogation videotapes destroyed by the CIA on November 9, 2005.  The page was produced to the ACLU as part of the ...

Mar. 06, 2009
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water

A heavily redacted version of a report authored by the CIA's Office of the Inspector General.  The report was later released in less-redacted form.  It discusses the CIA's use of the "enhanced interrogation techniques," ...

A one-paragraph excerpt from the CIA's Special Review.  The paragraph summarizes a 2002 OLC memo's analysis of the anti-torture statute.

Aug. 14, 2004
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson

This documents is Appendix A of the CIA's Special Review.  It describes the procedures and resources for the drafting of the Special review.

Aug. 14, 2004
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson
George J. Tenet, John McLaughlin