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
May 24, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5047

This May 24, 2004 Newsweek article discusses the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. It describes legal justifications for the Bush administration's interrogation program.

Mar. 15, 2013
Other
George W. Bush, Jane Harman, Lindsey Graham, Larry DiRita, Donald H. Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Cofer Black, Colin L. Powell, John C. Yoo, William Howard Taft, IV, Alberto R. Gonzales, Rick Baccus, Richard B. Myers, William J. Haynes, II, Geoffrey D. Miller, Stephen A. Cambone, William G. Boykin, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Paul Wayne Bergrin, Ricardo Sanchez
Physical assault
June 23, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3849
Emails discuss the Department of Defenses' recent release of documents, the documents apparently explained the types of interrogation techniques the U.S. employed in Guantanamo. However, the documents are being criticized as insufficient. The ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Ed Cummings
JoAnn J. Dolan | Todd F. Buchwald | Joshua L. Dorosin | Steven A. Solomon | David Kaye
Edward R. Cummings, JoAnn J. Dolan, Todd F. Buchwald, Joshua L. Dorosin, Steven A. Solomon, David A. Kaye, Charles L. Daris, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Ricardo Sanchez
Stress positions, Use of phobias, Nudity
DOS | ACLU-RDI 3828

Email from Russ K. LaMotte, emailed a transcript of an April 20, 2004 Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Hearing on Iraq and Afghanistan to other DOS officials. The hearing transcript is included; the theme is broad, it discusses the ...

Email, Interview (Transcript)
Russell K. LaMotte
Joshua L. Dorosin | James H. Thessin | Todd F. Buchwald | Stephen D. Mathias
Russell K. LaMotte, Joshua L. Dorosin, James H. Thessin, Todd F. Buchwald, D. Stephen Mathias, Carl Levin, Monica J. Tillery, Marc Grossman, Frank E. Schmelzer , John Warner, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard B. Myers, George W. Bush, Dov S. Zakeim, Eric Shinseki, John Dimitri Negroponte, Tommy Franks, Raymond T. Odierno, John R. Batiste, Jack Keane, Richard B. Myers, Mick Kicklighter, Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr., Jay Garner, Alan Wayne Allard, John McCain, Richard A. Clarke, Edward M. Kennedy, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Peter Schoomaker, Joe Lieberman, Sue Collins, Jeff Sessions, David Petraeus, John P. Abizaid, Jack Reed, Ricardo Sanchez, John Cornyn, Ben Nelson, Karl Winfrid Eikenberry, Elizabeth Dole, Mark Dayton, John Ensign, Daniel Akaka, Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton, L. Paul Bremer, James Steele
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Aug. 31, 2004 | DOA | OJAG | ACLU-RDI 467

An email between members of the Staff Judge Advocate, forwarding a Washington Post article titled "Documents Helped Sow Abuse, Army Report Finds," from August 30, 2004.

Mar. 23, 2005
Email
Ricardo Sanchez, Paul J. Kern, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Alberto Mora, Geoffrey D. Miller, George W. Bush, John P. Abizaid, George R. Fay, Thomas Pappas
Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Religious
May 13, 2004 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 359
Transcript of the testimony of Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Secretary of Defense), Gen. Peter Pace (USMC, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), and Joel Kaplan (Deputy Director of the OMB).
Dec. 31, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
John Warner, Paul Wolfowitz, Peter Pace, Joel Kaplan, George W. Bush, Robert C. Byrd, Jeff Sessions, Alan Wayne Allard, Carl Levin, David Petraeus, Edward M. Kennedy, Lawrence J. Lanzillotta, John McCain, John P. Abizaid, Tommy Franks, Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Ricardo Sanchez, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Charley Cooper, James M. Inhoff, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Sue Collins, Mark Dayton, Elizabeth Dole, Bill Nelson, Hillary Clinton, Keith B. Alexander, Jack Reed, Jim Talent, Douglas J. Feith