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)

On September 14, 2004, a detainee stated that when he was captured (possibly in Khowst), an individual forced him to talk by holding a knife to his throat. Then he was forced to hold his hands out to carry sandbags, which caused abrasions in his ...
This case involves two Marines posing for pictures with an Enemy Prisoner of War while they were guarding him. In the pictures, the two Marines are aiming their M-16 service rifles in close proximity at the EPW, who had recently received medical ...
Nov. 30, 2005
Investigative File (NCIS)
Other Humiliation

NCIS report on the results of investigative efforts regarding allegations of abuse made by two detainees, Ali and Hassan, in Iraq. In one case, a detainee captured on February 8, 2004, alleged he was assaulted while being held at "al ...

Nov. 29, 2005
Investigative File (NCIS)
Physical assault, General, Other

Army CID division requests help from the Navy's NCIS division in identifying the facilities where a detainees stayed, the men who interviewed them, etc. The Final Information Reports give very brief outlines of the hours put into the ...

NCIS received a request for assistance from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) to "locate and conduct a victim interview" of a Guantanamo detainee regarding an assault that was alleged to have taken place at Bagram ...

Aug. 22, 2005
Investigative File (NCIS)
Physical assault, General
Memo from Navy NCIS to Personnel Touring Through Guantanamo re: Guantanamo Procedures and Duties Upon Arrival, i.e. Upon arrival at GTMO, your on-ground NCAVC counterpart will introduce you to appropriate FBI, CITF, DHS, CTC, and other United ...

Investigation into an incident in which two marines, both from 1st Medical Battalion, Combat Service Support Group-15, posed for photographs while pointing their M-16 service rifles at an enemy prisoner of war, whom they were assigned to guard ...

Executive Summary of NCIS Report of investigation regarding alleged assault of one or more Enemy Prisoners of War (EPW) by U.S. Navy employee in Iraq. Alleged abuse first reported in counseling session in early October 2003 at Naval Hospital ...

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

NCIS Report of investigation initiated on June 13, 2003 following notification from officers at Camp Pendleton that, on the morning of June 13, a member of a unit “reported that on the previous evening (12 Jun 03) at a unit party, a ...

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

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