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 (6)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Jan. 15, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4984

A memo directing DOD General Counsel Jim Haynes to establish a working group "to assess the legal, policy, and operational issues relating to the interrogations of detainees."  That working group would later recommend ...

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld
William J. Haynes, II
Donald H. Rumsfeld, William J. Haynes, II
May 08, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4854
Executive Summary discussing the U.S. Southern Command's request to use additional interrogation techniques. On April 16, 2003, the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, approved the following techniques: change of scenery down, which was ...
Jan. 05, 2007
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld
Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other
June 02, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4789
Memorandum to General Geoffrey Miller regarding Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), Donald Rumsfeld's memorandum. The memo to Gen. Miller seeks clarification on the use of certain techniques, including a concern about the removal of the Koran from ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo
James T. Hill
Geoffrey D. Miller
Geoffrey D. Miller, Donald H. Rumsfeld, James T. Hill
Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Other
Apr. 16, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 3544

A memo from Secretary Rumsfeld approving a set of interrogation techniques, including some that it admits may be "inconsistent with" provisions of the Geneva Conventions.  The techniques include "Pride and Ego Down," ...

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld
James T. Hill
Donald H. Rumsfeld, James T. Hill, Richard B. Myers
Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation
Jan. 15, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 3543
Department of Defense memo rescinding approval of the use of all Category II techniques and one Category III technique during investigations that were previously approved on December 2, 2002. Attaches memo from Jim Haynes, General Counsel of the ...
June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld
James T. Hill
Donald H. Rumsfeld, William J. Haynes, II, James T. Hill
July 09, 2003 | NCIS | ACLU-RDI 529

NCIS Report of investigation commenced on June 13, 2003 after officer at Camp Pendleton contacted an NCIS Special Agent to make a statement regarding alleged war crimes committed by a marine, who “was overheard bragging about stabbing ...

Nov. 23, 2004
Investigative File (NCIS)
Donald H. Rumsfeld
Physical assault, General