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)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 23, 2008 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4506
DOJ letter regarding ACLU, et al., v. Department of Defense, et al., which states that the CIA has re-reviewed documents concerning waterboarding and produced redacted versions of some of those documents. Letter also mentions that on May 12, ...
May 23, 2008
Letter, Judicial
Michael J. Garcia | Sean H. Lane | Peter M. Skinner
Melanca D. Clark
Michael J. Garcia, Sean H. Lane, Peter M. Skinner
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
Mar. 14, 2003 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 5018

This legal memo from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Justice Department to the Department of Defense analyzes the legal standards governing military interrogations of "alien unlawful combatans" held outside the United ...

Apr. 01, 2008
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
William J. Haynes, II
John C. Yoo, William J. Haynes, II, Timothy E. Flanigan, Alberto R. Gonzales, Patrick Philbin, Jay S. Bybee, Daniel J. Bryant, Robert J. Delahunty, Ari Fleischer, William Howard Taft, IV, John B. Bellinger, III, James C. Ho, Daniel Dell'Orto
Feb. 11, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 4852
530th Military Police Battalion-Camp Ashraf Mission Brief/PowerPoint presentation on the rights of enemy prisoners of war (EPWs). The presentation includes Geneva Convention articles and principles, which discuss the proper treatment of EPWs.
Jan. 05, 2007
Other
Antonio Taguba
Antonio Taguba
DOD | ACLU-RDI 4853
News article about a German television news report that reported the torture and killing of an Iraqi prisoner by US soldiers at a US military base in Al Asad West, Baghdad, Iraq. The news program, Spiegel TV, reported that a 47 year old Iraqi, ...
Jan. 05, 2007
Other
Luis A. Santiago
Asad Abdul Kareem Abdul Jaleel
Other
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 30, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4855
The general scope of the email is the treatment of detainees, enemy prisoners of war (EPWs) and 'illegal combatants.' The author mentioned that he/she did not believe a particular team was following the rules outlined in Army Regulation 190-8. ...
Oct. 03, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4856
The Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center's interrogation standing operating procedures, among other rules and principles, it provides an interrogation code of conduct.
Jan. 13, 2005 | DON | ACLU-RDI 4857
Presentation from the Naval Inspector General (IG), discussing the Naval IG's review of detainee information released under the FOIA to the ACLU.
Jan. 05, 2007
Other
Gordon R. England, John T. Furlow, Albert T. Church, Ronald A. Route
July 14, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4788
Emails discuss mistreatment of detainees at Guantanamo (GTMO), the author would like the recipient, who was assigned to GTMO, to respond with any information related to detainee abuse.
Jan. 02, 2007
Email
Valerie E. Caproni
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