Music as Torture????

[afchic]

Can anyone say boo fricking hooo?????
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
December 10, 2008

Military Use Of Blasting Music As A Weapon To Break Detainees Shocks Some Performers

By Andrew O. Selsky, Associated Press

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba--Blaring from a speaker behind a metal grate in his tiny cell in Iraq, the blistering rock from Nine Inch Nails hit Prisoner No. 200343 like a sonic bludgeon.

“Stains like the blood on your teeth,” Trent Reznor snarled over distorted guitars. “Bite. Chew.”

The auditory assault went on for days, then weeks, then months at the U.S. military detention center. Twenty hours a day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The prisoner, military contractor Donald Vance of Chicago, said he grew suicidal.

The tactic has been common in the U.S. war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, “to create fear, disorient … and prolong capture shock.”

Now the detainees aren’t the only ones complaining. Musicians are banding together to demand the U.S. military stop using their songs as weapons.

A campaign being launched today has brought together groups including Massive Attack and musicians such as Tom Morello, who played with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and is now on a solo tour. It will feature minutes of silence during concerts and festivals, said Chloe Davies of the British law group Reprieve, which represents dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees and is organizing the campaign.

At least Vance, who says he was jailed for reporting illegal arms sales, was used to rock music. For many detainees who grew up in Afghanistan--where music was prohibited under Taliban rule--interrogations by U.S. forces marked their first exposure to the pounding rhythms, played at top volume.

The experience was overwhelming for many. Binyam Mohammed, now a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, said men held with him at the CIA’s “Dark Prison” in Afghanistan wound up screaming and smashing their heads against walls, unable to endure more.

“There was loud music, [Eminem’s] ‘Slim Shady’ and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard this nonstop,” he told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, a former attorney with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. “The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds.”

The spokeswoman for Guantanamo’s detention center, Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, wouldn’t give details of when and how music has been used at the prison, but said it isn’t used today. She didn’t respond when asked whether music might be used in the future.

FBI agents stationed at Guantanamo Bay reported numerous instances in which music was blasted at detainees, saying they were “told such tactics were common there.”

According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo Bay bragged he needed only four days to “break” someone by alternating 16 hours of music and lights with four hours of silence and darkness.

Not all of the music is hard rock. Christopher Cerf, who wrote music for “Sesame Street,” said he was horrified to learn songs from the children’s TV show were used in interrogations.

“I wouldn’t want my music to be a party to that,” he said.

Bob Singleton, whose song “I Love You” is beloved by legions of preschool Barney fans, wrote in a newspaper opinion column that any music can become unbearable if played loudly for long stretches.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous,” he wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “A song that was designed to make little children feel safe and loved was somehow going to threaten the mental state of adults and drive them to the emotional breaking point?”

Some musicians, however, say they’re proud that their music is used in interrogations. Those include bassist Stevie Benton, whose group Drowning Pool has performed in Iraq and recorded one of the interrogators’ favorites, “Bodies.”

“People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down,” he told Spin magazine. “I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that.”

Torment playlist

According to the British law group Reprieve, these are among the songs U.S. military interrogators have used most frequently:

*“Enter Sandman,” Metallica.

*“Bodies,” Drowning Pool.

*“Shoot to Thrill,” AC/DC.

*“Hell’s Bells,” AC/DC.

*“I Love You,” from the “Barney and Friends” children’s TV show.

*“Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen.

*“White America,” Eminem.

*“Sesame Street,” theme song from the children’s TV show.

Other bands and artists whose music has been frequently played at U.S. detention sites: Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Don McLean, Lil’ Kim, Limp Bizkit, Meat Loaf, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tupac Shakur.

Source: Reprieve

[zuluzerosix]

Images from A Clockwork Orange come to mind.....Hey, whatever works is fine by me!

[csquare]

We had an exercise at Tolz (Fall 88/89), with the Berlin Bde as OPFOR. Our safe house was compromised. "BA" Allard and myself took one for the team and got captured. They took us to the Ranger platoon confidence compound. We both were tied, kneeling on rocks, to a tar covered telephone pole, kotex covering our eyes with 100 mph wrapped around our heads, and this loud music blaring inches from our ears. It only lasted for one night And after the sun came up, they put us into the detention tent.

But if they made me listen to that damn Barney song just once, it would had put me on the chip and probably made me go mental too. Listening to it for hours on end.....Lord!

[Puertoland]

They should try using "Don't break my heart, my achy breaky heart."

Will break the terrorists much faster.

All jokes aside, music is much more humane then burning the flesh off of ones feet for bones to fall out, rectum stretching, and bats to the soles of feet, along with the other 3rd world forms of torture.

I have no idea how people think one is to conduct themselves in war, if no pressure can be applied. The British lost during the revolutionary war when they tried to wage it the "nice" way, and if it was up to the people who have no idea what war is like, we'd lose through the same means.

[zuluzerosix]

rectum stretching????


I get enough of that at work. No thanks.

[JJ_BPK]

Here are some of my favorites,,

Has-em screaming every time...

[Kyobanim]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

Here are some of my favorites,,

Has-em screaming every time...

Now you're scaring me

[Puertoland]

Originally Posted by zuluzerosix

rectum stretching????


I get enough of that at work. No thanks.

Well it usually doesn't end in it just being stretched, I guess ripping is a better term...

Another to add to the list: I want to love you tender.

Watching the muted video works just as fine as well.

[Team Sergeant]

I don't know, if I "had to" listen to Rap music or barbra streisand for any length of time it would not take long for me to tell every secret I've ever been privy too....

[JJ_BPK]

Originally Posted by Kyobanim

Now you're scaring me

It gets better,,,

When the thiopental cocktail kicks,

spin these favorites,, in English, Spanish, Japanese, or Yiddish,,

Barry & Babs

[Richard]

When some of the guys in the 7th Group barracks were being a little loud when I was trying to get some sleep, I'd put this 8Track tape of Native American music in my player, crank the volume up, lock the door, and leave the barracks for about 30 mikes. By the time I returned, the other music had been turned down or the party had moved elsewhere, and I could get some sleep. If you've ever listened to some Comanche, Sioux, Navajo or whatever music for any length of time...over about 1 minute...you'd surrender, too, because that stuff is even worse than listening to that Chinese opera caterwaulering and untuned first cousin of a sitar plinking noise.

Richard's $.02

[zuluzerosix]

Originally Posted by Richard

When some of the guys in the 7th Group barracks were being a little loud when I was trying to get some sleep, I'd put this 8Track tape of Native American music in my player, crank the volume up, lock the door, and leave the barracks for about 30 mikes. By the time I returned, the other music had been turned down or the party had moved elsewhere, and I could get some sleep. If you've ever listened to some Comanche, Sioux, Navajo or whatever music for any length of time...over about 1 minute...you'd surrender, too, because that stuff is even worse than listening to that Chinese opera caterwaulering and untuned first cousin of a sitar plinking noise.

Richard's $.02

I HAVE!!!

My old neighbors were Native American. We would get it live whenever there was a birthday or a wedding or some other Native American holiday. They would have a pretty big shindig right in the backyard with drums and the whole works!

Mother of Pearl it would go on and on into the night.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by zuluzerosix

I HAVE!!!

My old neighbors were Native American. We would get it live whenever there was a birthday or a wedding or some other Native American holiday. They would have a pretty big shindig right in the backyard with drums and the whole works!

Mother of Pearl it would go on and on into the night.

And that's another reason why we drink...a lot!

Richard's $.02

[GratefulCitizen]

Originally Posted by Richard

If you've ever listened to some Comanche, Sioux, Navajo or whatever music for any length of time...over about 1 minute...you'd surrender, too, because that stuff is even worse than listening to that Chinese opera caterwaulering and untuned first cousin of a sitar plinking noise.

Richard's $.02

While making a delivery a couple of weeks ago, the local radio was blaring rap music...in Navajo.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by GratefulCitizen

While making a delivery a couple of weeks ago, the receiver's radio was blaring rap music...in Navajo.

OMG!!! Oh, my ears!!!

Richard's $.02