Unredacted is a research unit that investigates and documents secretive UK national security practices. Our public archive contains 10,980 documents.

Investigations

The Unredacted team undertakes in-depth investigations into national security programmes and practices, with a particular focus on covert, clandestine and secretive aspects of the US-UK ‘War on Terror’. We produce original, high-impact research, uncovering the contours of secretive practices, identifying abuses of power and enabling others to hold governments and corporations to account.

Documents

Our fully-searchable Archive provides access to thousands of national security-related documents, including those sourced through our investigations or otherwise gathered by the team. The Archive will continue to grow significantly throughout 2025, becoming a permanent, public collection of material relating to national security and human rights.

Impact

Our findings have made headlines across national media and led to emergency parliamentary debates, Ministerial statements and changes in government policy. Our work has informed official inquiries into systematic human rights abuses and war crimes investigations at the UN and ICC, and has supported cases brought before UK courts, the European Court of Human Rights, the US Supreme Court and military commissions at Guantánamo Bay.

Our Briefings

Our investigation has established beyond reasonable doubt that Britain has been deeply and directly involved in the rendition, secret detention and torture of prisoners in the ‘war on terror’. This briefing provides an overview of that involvement.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is investigating UK complicity in the secret detention and torture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national who was held within the CIA torture programme between 2002-06, detained and tortured in secret prisons around the world.
An overview of 26 separate UK Special Forces operations which resulted in the killing of at least 84 Afghan boys and men, including children as young as 12. Many of these appear to have been war crimes.
Documents revealing the long history of MI5 'authorising' their informants to commit crime, with official guidance providing no meaningful limits on the types of crime authorised, or on the scale of involvement by MI5 officers and informants.
Mustafa al-Hawsawi is a Saudi national arbitrarily detained at Guantánamo Bay. Between 2003-2006 he was held in the CIA torture programme, detained and tortured in secret prisons around the world. The IPT is investigating UK complicity in this mistreatment.
Documents that make clear the extent to which senior officers in UK Special Forces were aware of potential systematic war crimes in Afghanistan, as well as suspicion among Royal Military Police investigators that evidence was subsequently covered up.

Our Collections

The UK’s largest collection of national security-related material released under the Freedom of Information Act (2000), including ICO decision notices and judgments from the First-Tier and Upper Tribunals.
A growing collection of documents from within the CIA torture programme, including memos, internal reports and cables from a number of secret prisons (black sites) where detainees were held outside the law and subjected to systematic torture.
Hundreds of documents from a wide range of sources, representing the largest collection of publicly available material relating to allegations of war crimes committed by UK (and allied) Special Forces in Afghanistan.
A collection of air traffic control records, billing documents and other forms of flight data, collected by The Rendition Project during its investigation into the CIA torture programme.
Documents related to the work of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the body responsible for considering allegations of unlawful intrusion and other human rights violations by public bodies, including the UK intelligence services.
Documents relating to proceedings at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) involving appeals against citizenship deprivation and detention, deportation or exclusion from the UK on grounds of national security, or other public interest reasons.

×
×
Loading...