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 (6015)

This document, prepared by the Chief of Medical Services, summarizes and reflects upon the rendition, detention and interrogation program. The findings include that in a particular no evidence was found that the use of waterboard produced ...
These guidelines, issued by George Tenet, detail permissible interrogation techniques (including EITs), medical and psychological personnel who must be present, interrogation personnel, approvals required, and recordkeeping requirements.
This document is a heavily redacted letter from Scott Muller to the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence proposing a draft response to a Human Rights Watch letter.
June 10, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Scott W. Muller
John McLaughlin
Scott W. Muller, John McLaughlin
This document is a heavily redacted message concerning a White House meeting on enhanced techniques, and mentions that the Justice Department memorandum provides a legal "safe harbor" where conduct is lawful and no prosecutions will be mounted.
June 10, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Scott W. Muller
EIT
This heavily redacted memorandum contains comments from Medical Services on the Counterterrorism Detention and Investigation Program. The memorandum mentions OMS concerns about a conflict of interest in which the only individuals approved to ...
June 10, 2016
Non-legal Memo
John L. Helgerson
This Operational Review of the CIA Detainee Program finds that the program is a success and provides "unique and invaluable intelligence." The review also finds that the procedures for handling detainees are "adequate and clear"and that the ...
June 10, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Henry A. Crumpton
Deputy Director for Operations
Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr.
This memorandum is a heavily redacted message to Acting Assistant Attorney General Dan Levin, stating that the CIA is preparing preliminary biographies "in preparation for a future request for a legal opinion" on interrogations in CIA control.
June 10, 2016
Cable, Letter
Dan Levin
Daniel B. Levin
This photo most likely depicts the injured leg of Manadel Al-Jamadi, an Iraqi man captured by Navy SEALs in November 2003 and tortured and killed by CIA interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison. The gruesome details of Al-Jamadi’s abuse and killing ...
Feb. 05, 2016
Photograph
Manadel Al-Jamadi
Physical assault
This photo relates to the case of a “high value” Iraqi detainee, who, according to a report by The Constitution Project, was Ibrahim Khalid Samir al-Ani, a Baathist intelligence officer wrongly accused of having met with 9/11 hijacker Mohammed ...
Feb. 05, 2016
Photograph
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Cramped confinement
This document is a lengthy email from a FBI agent who repeatedly expresses discomfort with FBI interrogation methods. He reports being "placed in a very precarious situation" and "asked to do something I fest was wrong given what FBI agents can ...