Another day, another story of “torture” from Club Gitmo.
Seems, as a form of coercion, detention officials have used (gasp!) “loud music” to make things uncomfortable for these poor innocents.
Qouting from the Associated Press:
The auditory assault went on for days, then weeks, then months at the U.S. military detention center in Iraq. Twenty hours a day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The prisoner, military contractor Donald Vance of Chicago, told The Associated Press he was soon suicidal.
Songs from such bands called “Nine Inch Nails”, “Rage Against The Machine”, and “Massive Attack” (gee, with names like those, you’d think they would be on the terrorists’ top ten list), were played for successive hours to “break” prisoners, or, as people living in reality call them, terrorists.
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. military commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, “to create fear, disorient … and prolong capture shock.”
The article, not giving any indication as to what techniques one could actually use against such criminals, went on to tell stories of the “horrific” plight these individuals had to endure.
A campaign being launched Wednesday 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.
Ruhal Ahmed, a Briton who was captured in Afghanistan, describes excruciating sessions at Guantanamo Bay. He said his hands were shackled to his feet, which were shackled to the floor, forcing him into a painful squat for periods of up to two days.
He continues:
“You’re in agony,” Ahmed, who was released without charge in 2004, told Reprieve. He said the agony was compounded when music was introduced, because “before you could actually concentrate on something else, try to make yourself focus on some other things in your life that you did before and take that pain away
I guess he means things like beheading Americans.
I really feel for them. I have heard music from these bands, and can say I agree they are terrible to listen to.
Maybe we should play Neil Young’s Grammy-nominated mega-hit “Let’s Impeach the President”.
Bet that would buck up those boy scouts down there.
