Tunes of torture: 'deafening music used to torment U.S. prisoners'

RussiaToday
Jun. 21, 2008

The blaring of loud music at extremely dangerous levels is reportedly being used for the torture of political prisoners and suspected terrorists in the U.S.

The claim comes from lawyers at Reprieve, a UK human rights charity.

One Iraqi prisoner said that there is a special location, called ‘the disco’, where songs like Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ or Eminem's ‘White America’ are played for hours in Guantanamo Bay.

The charity is calling on the practice to be stopped and wants the music industry to do more by making a committed stand against it.

It is disappointed that some musicians do not seem concerned at the use of their music.

“Most of the artists’ representatives just refuse to give any comments,” says Clive Stafford Smith, a director of the charity.

Some musicians even laugh it off, like James Hetfield, co-founder of Metallica. "We've been punishing our parents, our wives, our loved ones with this music for ever. Why should the Iraqis be any different?" he said.

According to US military authorities, God himself was the first to write the strategy of "torture by music" into the field manual.

"Joshua's army used horns to strike fear into the hearts of the people of Jericho," retired US Air Force Lt-Col Dan Kuehl told the St Petersburg Times. "His men might not have been able to break down literal walls with their trumpets, but the noise eroded the enemy's courage."

The American investigative magazine Mother Jones has even created a ‘torture playlist’. Bruce Springsteen's ‘Born In The USA’ and Barney The Dinosaur's ‘I Love You’ are among their choices.