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 (5)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Sept. 25, 2001 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6569
This September 25, 2009 OLC memo from John Yoo finds that in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the President has the constitutional power to 1) retaliate against any person, organization, or state suspected of involvement in these attacks ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
Deputy Counsel to the President
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
Sept. 25, 2001 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4539

The memo discusses whether a change to the FISA law would render it unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. Specifically it considers and concludes that changing the law from requiring that foreign intelligence gathering be “the ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
David S. Kris
John C. Yoo, David S. Kris
Oct. 23, 2001 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4540

This memo considers the use of military force to prevent or deter terrorist activity domestically and concludes that, “the President has both constitutional and statutory authority to use the armed forces in military operations, against ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo | Robert J. Delahunty
Alberto Gonzalez | William J. Haynes, II
Robert J. Delahunty, William J. Haynes, II, John C. Yoo, George W. Bush, David S. Kris
Nov. 15, 2001 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4541

A memo from John Yoo to John Bellinger analyzing whether the President may suspend certain articles of the ABM treaty.  The concludes that in both cases proposed, the president may suspend the articles.

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo | Robert J. Delahunty
John Bellinger
John C. Yoo, John B. Bellinger, III, Robert J. Delahunty