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 (156)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Apr. 30, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 655
Marine Corps inquiry in to possible abuse of a detainee on April 13, 2004 at the Al Mahmudiya Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Iraq. Members of the guard force at the Detention Facility were accused of shocking a detainee using a power cord by ...
June 28, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File (AR 15-6)
James N. Mattis
James N. Mattis
Use of electricity
July 26, 2003 | DON | ACLU-RDI 656
Marine Corps inquiry in to alleged detainee abuse based on statements related by medical personnel. The medical personnel claim the Marine being investigated stated that he injured his hand while punching a detainee. The inquiry found that it was ...
Sept. 22, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 657
Two (2) suspects in the theft from the Iraqi National Guard (ING) Training Camp at Camp Junction City, allege being abused while in custody. Both suspects provided facts "proven to be false and established patterns of not providing the truth". ...
June 28, 2006
Investigative File
Richard F. Natonski
Richard F. Natonski
General, Use of electricity, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Light or sound, Physical assault, Environmental manipulation
June 25, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 648
Navy Criminal Investigative Service Officer asks about two brothers who were held in Iraq stating that when he saw them they looked "pretty shaken up (shivering from cold and laying on concrete all night). It appeared they had gone through a few ...
May 15, 2006
Email
General, Temperature, Physical assault, Environmental manipulation
July 26, 2003 | DON | ACLU-RDI 649
USMC Investigation into incident of abuse where a superior officer ordered a subordinates to take a detainees’ money, strip them naked to their underwear and release them in their underwear. Some soldiers protested. Investigator recommends ...
May 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
John F. Kelly
Threat, Assault/death, Nudity
May 14, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 650
U.S. Marine Corps investigation into death of Awayed Wanas Jabar. Jabar was taken in to custody on April 17, 2004. He sustained a head injury in an escape attempt. A doctor examined him and said he was “OK”. A guard witnessed Jabar take his ...
May 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
James N. Mattis
Walid Tawfiq Jabar
Stress positions, Other
Aug. 01, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 652
An inquiry in to the abuse of a detainee taken in to custody after a raid on a residence by the U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines (2/2). The captured Iraqi alleged that he was verbally and physically abused during the course of ...
May 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
Physical assault, General, Other Humiliation
Sept. 24, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 653
During a raid, jointly conducted by U.S. Marine Corps personnel with the 24th MEU (SOC) and Iraqi National Guards (INGs), a weapons cache was found. It was alleged that ING personnel slapped the owner of the home during an interrogation and shot ...
May 15, 2006
Investigative File
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death
July 07, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 5019

This memo by Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, gives the chronology of his opposition (and the opposition of other members of the Navy) to the harsh interrogation techniques authorized for use at Guantanamo Bay by Secretary of Defense ...

Feb. 27, 2006
Legal Memo
Alberto Mora
Albert T. Church
Alberto Mora, Albert T. Church, Donald H. Rumsfeld, William J. Haynes, II, Mary Walker, Thomas F. Kranz, William R. Molzahn, Charlotte O. Wise, Richard W. Schieke, Michael F. Lohr, Kevin M. Sandkuhler, Peter Murphy, David Brant, Michael Gelles, Steven J. Morello, Thomas W. Taylor, Michael E. Dunlavey , Diane E. Beaver, Gordon R. England, William J. Fallon, Kevin P. Green, Susan M. Livingstone, George W. Bush, Jaymie Durnan, Paul Wolfowitz, Jane Dalton, Daniel Dell'Orto, John C. Yoo, Patrick Leahy, Daniel J. Ramos, James T. Hill, Geoffrey D. Miller
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Sexual
June 08, 2004 | NCIS | ACLU-RDI 1923

NCIS interview of a detainee at Guantanamo regarding his activities in Afghanistan. The detainee stated that he traveled throughout Afghanistan doing charity work and teaching the Koran. The detainee stated that he never took up arms while in ...

Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File (NCIS), Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Other