Musicians to U.S. Government: Stop Using Our Songs as Torture Devices
December 10th, 2008 by Evil Beet
So many jokes, so little time. I’m going to refrain myself, given that this is actually kind of an important subject. Just insert your own joke every two sentences or so. It’ll make me feel better about passing on all of them.
The U.S. government has long been using heavy metal music as a torture device at overseas camps like Guantanamo Bay. Prisoners are forced to listen to bands like AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails and Pantera on full-blast, twenty hours a day. [This is where you insert a joke.] The tactic was authorized by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez in September 2003 “to create fear, disorient … and prolong capture shock.” [There's another joke here.] This music is particularly unsettling to prisoners raised in Afghanistan or Iraq, where the pounding heavy metal sounds are rarely heard. The treatment often drives prisoners to madness; they wind up screaming and smashing their heads against walls, unable to endure more.
It’s not just heavy metal: the government has also been using songs from Sesame Street and even the Barney “I Love You” song. [Joke here, guys.]
Now, musicians are taking a stand against this, and insisting the government not use their songs as torture devices.
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.
Some musicians, however, say they’re proud that their music is used in interrogations. Those include bassist Stevie Benton, whose group Drowning Pool has performed in Iraq and recorded one of the interrogators’ favorites, “Bodies.”
“People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down,” he told Spin magazine. “I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that.”
What do you guys think???
Is this an acceptable practice?
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I have to say, I’m opposed to torture in any form. I just think it’s ethically wrong and inhumane.
As an artist, this particular form of torture seems awful to me in a unique way. It’s horrible to think that art – any form of art, even metal – which is generally intended to inspire or explore ideas or make people happy, is used to incite fear or pain. It’s so contradictory to its original purpose. I find it offensive that something as important and meaningful as art is used to torture.
The fact that we imploy torture of any kind, against anyone, just makes me sad.
they saw people’s heads off with dull blades, and we question the use of “music torture”? that’s what’s wrong with this nation. i mean among others.
@ indigo – you tried…you really gave it your best shot there!
Methinks Carol is ESL…
An American that supports torture should be water boarded and then see if your opinion changes. Neo-conservative pricks.
just thought id mention the fact that mental torture brings upon physical pain, sometimes it can be worse then just getting the shit kicked out of you. Also that a lot of the people we feel the need to torture havent been convicted of jack shit, so imagine some random people of a completely different race and culture dragging you thousands of miles away from your home and hurting you both physically and mentally until you kill yourself just to make it stop, for something that you didnt do. Not to mention the fact that torture is ILLEGAL loves just in case you havent figured that little fact out in your little “they just might harm me one day so i’d better harm them first and worse now” worlds. I’ve known people in the war and can outright promise you that we have killed many more innocents then we have terrorists, the main person i know admits that he was told along with his group to kill men,women, and children for the simple purpose of instilling fear so they just might obey a little better.
One of my military buddies told me once he was interrogating and Iraqi insurgent that had lobbed mortars at his men the day before… he and his partner were screaming “WHERE IS MICKY MOUSE MOTHER FUCKER?! WHERE IS MICKEY MOUSE???” anyways the guy pissed himself… is that torture?
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace – Jimi Hendrix
Here in lies the problem…We are fixated in the wrong things in this world. Don’t look at it as anything other than that – it’s actually NOT that complicated. Torture SHOULD NOT EXIST.
The fact that good music (in the case of NIN and Rage, anyway) is used as torture is just a stupid side note and a sad example of what our government is doing wrong. The bands should not feel guilt though (and CERTAINLY shouldn’t feel honor as the ass clowns in drowing pool do) knowing their music is used in this way, but instead realize that even if their art weren’t being used for this sick device of power, our government would come up with some other tool.
Again: When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace
compared to what these people do to their prisoners, ya know like cut their heads off and put it on the internet, I think making them listen to heavy metal ain’t so bad. I am in the Army and it makes me mad that a lot of people forget that they don’t care about the Geneva Convention and rules for torture. They do awful stuff to American POWs.
I love heavy metal and find this f-ing hilarious lol. (: