Stop the music torture, rock bands tell U.S. military

WalesOnline
Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008

Rock musicians have joined British activists to demand US military interrogators stop using their songs as weapons to disorient terror suspects and other prisoners.

A campaign organised by UK law group Reprieve 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 Reprieve, which represents dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

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The tactic of auditory assaults has been common in the US war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the then US military commander in Iraq, authorised it on September 14 2003, “to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock”.

FBI agents stationed at Guantanamo Bay reported numerous instances in which music was blasted at detainees, saying they were “told such tactics were common there”.

According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo bragged he needed only four days to “break” someone by alternating 16 hours of music and lights with four hours of silence and darkness.

Full article here