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 (4)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Feb. 21, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 261
Col. describes how he received his assignment to Iraq and the conditions he found at Abu Ghraib prison. He also describes and an incident where he referred an "unauthorized detainee interview" to Gen Pappas and that was eventually given to Capt. ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, John P. Abizaid, Thomas Pappas, Carolyn A. Wood, Barbara G. Fast, Ricardo Sanchez, Steven L. Jordan, Luciana Spencer, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Walter Wojdakowski, Geoffrey D. Miller, Condoleeza Rice, Donald J. Ryder, Michael D. Thompson , Marc Warren
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Nudity
Feb. 09, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 282
Testimony of Command Sergeant Major Joseph P. Arrison, 320th Military Police Battalion. CMS Arrison was not originally deployed with his unit and was “held back” at Ft. Dix and in the rear in Iraq when the incidents of detainee abuse that ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, Joseph P. Arrison, John P. Abizaid, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Thomas Pappas, Henry B. Nelson, Joseph P. Arrison
Feb. 12, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 297
Testimony of Mr. John Israel. Mr. Israel is a US Civilian Contract linguist/Interpreter hired by the Department of Defense through the Titan Corporation and assigned to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade to assist in detainee interrogations ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript, Statement)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, John Israel, John P. Abizaid, Thomas Pappas
Feb. 21, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 308
Cpt. Reese was the commander of the soldiers directly involved in detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. He said of his men “I'm appalled by what I saw from my soldiers; 2 out of the 7 here are correctional officers. And they were specifically put there ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, Donald J. Reese, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Jerry Phillabaum, Steven L. Jordan, John P. Abizaid, Michael Sheridan
Nudity, Forced physical training