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 (8)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Aug. 08, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6657
This cable provides a report of day 5 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 8, 2002. It includes details of interrogators using a combination of waterboarding, walling, cramped confinement, and hooding in ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
CIA | ACLU-RDI 6660
This cable provides a report of day 6 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 9, 2002. It includes details of interrogators using a combination of waterboarding, walling, cramped confinement, and hooding in ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 11, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6662
This cable provides a report of day 8 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 11, 2002. It includes details of interrogators using a combination of waterboarding, walling, cramped confinement, and hooding in ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Walling, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming
Aug. 12, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6669
This cable provides a report of day 9 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 12, 2002. It includes details of interrogators using a combination of waterboarding, walling, cramped confinement, hooding, and ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 15, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6671
This cable provides a report of day 12 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 15, 2002. Though large portions of this report are redacted, it includes details of interrogators using a combination of ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Apr. 01, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6678
This is a memo from the CIA which describes the month-long custody and interrogation of detainee Abu Zubaydah and requests comments from Alec/HQs "on establishing the priority focus of the ongoing interrogations of Abu Zubaydah".
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah, Abd Al-Rahman M. Al-Umari
EIT, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound
Nov. 01, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6734
This is a report from interrogators at COBALT, a CIA black site in Northern Kabul, Afghanistan, describing the status of Gul Rahman's interrogation. It is reported that Rahman was not responding to interrogation by Bruce Jessen; the responder ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Email, Cable
Bruce Jessen
Gul Rahman
EIT, Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature
Jan. 31, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6605
This cable includes the text of the January 28, 2003 DCI approved "Guidelines on Interrogations Conducted Pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum of Notification of 17 September 2001". The cable also asks that all personnel involved in ...
Sept. 26, 2016
Cable
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Other