Links for Document Collections
The Torture Archive was launched in 2009 by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. It contains thousands of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union and co-plaintiffs. The documents provide insights into the abuse and torture of detainees in US detention facilities in the 'War on Terror'. It also provides access to the key documents exchanged between the White House, the Department of Justice, and the CIA, in which torture was authorised for use by US agents. It also contains the complete set of documents released by the US Department of Defense from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Boards. Further documents have been released following litigation by the Center for Constitutional Rights. The Torture Archive joined forces with Washington Media Associates to produce the documentary film Torturing Democracy, first shown in the US in 2008. The film can be viewed on the website, along with interview transcripts, and an interactive timeline. The producers describe the film as having used the documentary record to 'connect the dots in an investigation of harsh interrogations of prisoners in U.S. custody - and points straight to the top. Timely and powerful, at its heart the film is about the rule of law - and how the government pushed it aside despite the fierce resistance of many on the inside'.
The Torture Report is an initiative of the ACLU's National Security Project. Published serially, on-line, in chapters, the report attempts to bring together all the data that it can on what it refers to as the Bush administration's torture programme. It draws on the many primary documents and witness statements that have emerged over the last ten years and is amended and annotated by a number of invited expert contributors. It incorporates an archive of searchable government documents that the ACLU secured access to through Freedom of Information requests.
Guantánamo Lawyers Digital Archive
Mark Denbeaux and Jonathan Hafetz, in collaboration with Michael Nash, director of New York University's Tamiment Library, have compiled the Guantánamo Lawyers Digital Archive. The Archive collects the narratives of lawyers who have represented detainees at the Guantánamo Bay Detention facility. Denbeaux and Hafetz are themselves lawyers who have represented Guantánamo detainees. Documents can be viewed and downloaded from the site as PDFs.
