Music Used To Torture Gitmo Prisoners Has Artists Hopping Mad
Everyone has their own taste when it comes to music.
What may be considered music to one’s ears, may be considered simply torturous to others. Just because I feel that Michael Bolton sounds like a cat getting skinned alive, and that his music is some sort of cruel joke to all of mankind, doesn’t mean that some other tone deaf person has to agree with me.
One thing is for certain, whether it is the sweet voice of Bonnie Raitt or the overrated raspy voice of Bruce who stepped in it Springsteen… if it is played at decibels to make you feel that your ears are going to bleed and it is played over and over… it can be quite torturous no matter who it is.
Everyone is aware that the prisoners at Gitmo (Guantánamo Bay) were needlessly tortured by water boarding along with other degrading and unspeakable acts.
One of the methods used was music played repeatedly and at ear piercing levels. The songs used and some of the artists who made that music are not too happy to say the least. How would you feel if one of your songs was used to torture someone? I am sure you would be horrified.
Well, Michael Stipe of REM, along with twenty or so other artists have aired their disgust, and have banned together and formed Close Gitmo Now.
A little info on Gitmo first, before we get into which performers are saying Gitmo has to go.
Gitmo has held nearly 800 detainees in it’s history. An alarming majority of those detainees were never charged, nor went to trial. Only THREE of those detainees have ever been convicted of a crime.To keep Gitmo open is costing tax payers MILLIONS.
So what did the spokesman for the CIA say when it came to using music as torture?
He said nuh-uh.
George Little, a CIA spokesman said:
“music was used only for security, rather than “punitive purposes”
And in a 2005 CIA document, it stated,
“loud music or white noise was needed “to mask sound and prevent communication among detainees”
So what tunes and artists made it to the Gitmo “top 20″?
According to the National Security Archive, they used anything from the Meow Mix jingle, to the Barney theme song. They used such artists as Marylin Manson to Britney Spears. Although the Meow Mix jingle and the Barney theme song both make me cringe and is enough to drive anyone buggy, at ANY volume… I wonder if the Meow Mix or the Barney people have a problem with the fact their music was used at Gitmo? I haven’t heard anything from either of them and I have to say, if they don’t have a problem with it, then I have a problem with them.
Why would they use the Meow Mix jingle and the Barney theme if it was just “to mask sound and prevent communication among detainees”?
And why were detainees subjected to “variable light patterns” while this music was played? Is the CIA going to say they wanted to have a disco effect for the detainees? Although it really wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
If the CIA claims are true, then why didn’t they just use classical music at non dangerous levels without light patterns? The term liar liar pants on fire comes to mind.
Another little pesky factor besides the CIA not having the permission of the artists to use their music, is the fact that the artist’s music was used as an interrogation tool.
So which artists are pissed and saying close Gitmo now ?
Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, REM, Pearl Jam, Roseanne Cash just to name a few.
Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Brown
Roseanne Cash recently appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart to tell everyone about the petition they have created which people can sign at www.closegitmonow.org
The BBC recently reported:
REM call for Guantanamo closure
Rock bands including Pearl Jam and REM have joined a coalition of musicians to support the US president’s efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.
The National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which also includes former military officers, launched on Tuesday.
Many of the artists who have signed up are angry that their music was used as an interrogation tool in the jail.
But CIA spokesman George Little said music was used only for security, rather than “punitive purposes”.
In a statement, REM said: “We have spent the past 30 years supporting causes related to peace and justice. To now learn that some of our friends’ music may have been used as part of the torture tactics without their consent or knowledge, is horrific. It’s anti-American, period.”
Other artists to sign up to the coalition include Jackson Browne, Steve Earle, Roseanne Cash, Billy Bragg, Bonnie Raitt and Rage Against The Machine.
On behalf of the campaign, the National Security Archive in Washington is filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking classified records that detail the use of loud music as an interrogation device.
‘Terrify and punish’
A report published in November 2008 by the Senate Armed Services Committee report, has already made several references to the technique.
In one case interrogators played records to “stress” a prisoner, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who believed music was forbidden.
In 2003, he was questioned while being “exposed to variable lighting patterns” and repeated plays of a song called Let the Bodies Hit the Floor by the band Drowning Pool.
Jayne Huckerby, from New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, said loud music was also played at clandestine prisons run by the CIA.
Following an early information request, Ms Huckerby received a CIA document dated December 2005 in which the agency explained that the use of loud music or white noise was needed “to mask sound and prevent communication among detainees”.
She argued that such sounds were not a “benign security tool,” but a way “to humiliate, terrify, punish, disorient and deprive detainees of sleep, in violation of international law”.
According to the National Security Archive, tracks by AC/DC, Britney Spears, the Bee Gees and Marilyn Manson were used at Guantanamo.
The Meow mix cat food jingle, the Barney theme song and an assortment of Sesame Street tunes also were played into detainees’ cells.
But the CIA insisted any music was played “at levels far below a live rock band”.
And Major Diana Haynie, a spokeswoman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said loud music has not been used with detainees since the fall of 2003.
Barack Obama pledged to close the Guantanamo detention camp by January, but Republican opposition in Congress has made fulfilling that promise look less likely.
So one of the reasons that Gitmo remains open is due to Republican opposition?
Although I am certianly not surprised by this…. WHY ARE THEY OPPOSED?
What reasons could the Republicans have to want to keep Gitmo going?
The NY Times stated that the estimated annual cost to operate Guantánamo Bay is anywhere from $90 million to $118 million. There are 226 detainees left at Gitmo. That is a cost of $400.000 to $520.000 per detainee. To incarcerate a prisoner in a supermax prison would be $75,000 in the US. Is anyone paying attention to this simple math? Get the facts
At a time when the US is in such an economic mess due to the carnage that was left behind by the lovely Bush administration, perhaps the millions of dollars spent on keeping Gitmo open can be used elsewhere? Ya think?
Now before our comment section turns into a shouting match between Republicans and Democrats…..
and people telling me to get my facts straight, (I only report what is out there) remember that this article is about how horrible it was to use an artist’s music to torture people AND the fact that their music was used without their consent. Not to mention what it costs to keep Gitmo going.
So if you have a comment about Close Gitmo Now or the musicians who started the petition, then that is fine. But if you want to argue about what Obama has done or not done to clean up Bush’s mess that he left behind, or the BS spin and scare tactics that the Republicans are using when it comes to the health care plan, (you know who you are, you silly teabaggers) OR if you are a Michael Bolton fan, then please go argue elsewhere. *SNICKER*
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
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