Friday, February 10th, 2012

Behind the Musical Torture

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Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:20 pm

R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Billy Bragg and David Byrne don’t like to think of music as torture, or part of any “enhanced interrogation techniques.” But declassified government documents show that at least some music — notably, Metallica, Britney Spears and some unidentified rap music, according to a 2004 Defense Department report — were used to “create futility” in some detainees who were seen as being uncooperative.So a group of 17 different bands and musicians, with the help of the National Security Archive, today filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests seeking complete declassification of secret U.S. documents revealing the strategy of using blaring rock and rap music as an “enhanced” interrogation tool.

“At Guantanamo, the U.S. government turned a jukebox into an instrument of torture,” said Thomas Blanton, the Archive’s executive director, in a statement released today. “The musicians and the public have the right to know how an expression of popular culture was transformed into an enhanced interrogation technique.”

Categories & Tags: Civil Rights| National Security| Torture| U.S.| | | | | | | | | | | | |

Comments

9 Comments

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Pingback posted October 22, 2009 @ 8:53 pm

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Freddy
Comment posted October 22, 2009 @ 8:37 pm

Any reason the musicians aren't offended that the CIA considered their music to be SO BAD that forcing prisoners to listen to it is considered torture? Basically, the CIA has said that AC/DC is apparently worse than listening to “It's A Small World After All” on repeat for days on end. If I were AC/DC, I certainly wouldn't want that to be posted all over the internet!

Musicians Want to Know What Music Was Used to Torture Detainees … | Gooodfor6-Music|Humor|Movies
Pingback posted October 22, 2009 @ 10:11 pm

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mattharshaw
Comment posted October 23, 2009 @ 10:35 am

any song over and over is torture… face it
musicians are just mad because itunes killed the cd star

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