The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that declassified Army documents approved soldiers to use various forms of popular music as torture devices for known terrorism suspects. The documents approve “yelling, loud music, light control: used to create fear, disorient detainee and prolong capture shock.”Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who served as U.S. military commander in Iraq, authorized the torture technique in September of 2003.
Binyam Mohammed who was held at the “Dark Prison” in Kabul, Afghanistan says U.S. forces bombarded him with repeated listens of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails and Metallica, which left inmates screaming and smashing their heads against prison cell walls.
“There was loud music, [Eminem‘s] ‘Slim Shady’ [click to read] and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard this nonstop over and over,” says Mohammed. “The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds.”
While few are sympathetic to the plights of alleged terrorists, despite the fact that many of the practices violate Geneva Conventions, some of the artists whose songs were used are quite upset.
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Tom Morello, whose work with Rage Against the Machine was also used, has joined with a group of other musicians to protest the use of their music as a weapon.
“I suggest that they level Guantanamo Bay, but they keep one small cell and they put Bush in there…and they blast some Rage Against the Machine,”Morello said.
