Musicians protest use of songs on Gitmo detainees

[308Mike]

Linkarooni - LOL!!

At least it's not pumping from a car sitting next to you at a stop light.

Musicians protest use of songs on detainees

By Andrew O. Selsky - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 9, 2008 16:50:22 EST

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Blaring from a speaker behind a metal grate in his tiny cell in Iraq, the blistering rock from Nine Inch Nails hit Prisoner No. 200343 like a sonic bludgeon.

“Stains like the blood on your teeth,” Trent Reznor snarled over distorted guitars. “Bite. Chew.”

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.

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.”

More of this story..............

[Erik]

Bob Singleton, whose song “I Love You” is beloved by legions of preschool Barney fans, wrote in a newspaper opinion column that any music can become unbearable if played loudly for long stretches.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous,” he wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “A song that was designed to make little children feel safe and loved was somehow going to threaten the mental state of adults and drive them to the emotional breaking point?”

I can see it now. Two days of that song nonstop, and then the interogator show up in a purple dino suit. If that doesn't break them...

[Joe ex PNG]

Terrorist just have no sense of what great music is! Maybe they can learn a little culture while over in Gitmo.

[BadgerVet]

I like AC/DC but about three or four songs in a row is all I can take.

[The Quiet Man]

I like AC/DC but about three or four songs in a row is all I can take.

I can listen to their albums over and over without getting tired of 'em...that goes for most rock-n-roll artists, but after about half the Barney song I am ready to open a vein. Same with whatever they call that noise that passes for music in the middle east.

[dfwmtx]

AC/DC, NIN, and Barney.....amateurs. I'd use Einsturzende Neubautten or NON's "Easy Listening For Iron Youth". Heck, there's a whole genre of music which can test the limits of a listener's tolerance.

But let's see....either sitting in a room listening endlessly to loud music I don't like, or the torture methods that Saddam's bunch or al-Quaeda has used? I think I'll take the Barney song, please, and turn it up to 11. They call it torture, but real torture is much, much worse. Why have people forgotten this?

[The Quiet Man]

AC/DC, NIN, and Barney.....amateurs. I'd use Einsturzende Neubautten or NON's "Easy Listening For Iron Youth". Heck, there's a whole genre of music which can test the limits of a listener's tolerance.

But let's see....either sitting in a room listening endlessly to loud music I don't like, or the torture methods that Saddam's bunch or al-Quaeda has used? I think I'll take the Barney song, please, and turn it up to 11. They call it torture, but real torture is much, much worse. Why have people forgotten this?

A great big +1.

Everytime these fools and knaves call something "torture" that really doesn't rise to level of REAL TORTURE it diminishes the meaning of the word. As I've said before, soon we will be told that sending detainees to bed without dessert is a form of torture. When we start treating captives the way our enemy does then someone can start to whine about mistreating enemy combatants...until then I believe they should STFU.

[sam]

F 'em! P*ssies. Try raising your hand and taking the oath, then backing it up, tough guy. Grrrr.

I rarely play the veteran card, but still . . . a*holes.

[Wrenchbender1]

...after about half the Barney song I am ready to open a vein.

Same here. Although I would rather open Barney's then my own. I wonder if he bleeds purple. If AC/DC pushes them to the edge of suicide, Fear Factory should make them take a running leap off the edge.

[308Mike]

I think it more boils down to ANY sustained noise for a significant period of time can become intolerable. As much as I'd say I'd rather hear that shiite for weeks on end, I wonder at my ability to withstand such a sustained noise for that long a period. And it has NOTHING to do with the music. Even my favorite songs would turn to shiite by then.

I'd like to think I could take whatever non-physical irritations and false motivations my captors could throw at me. SERIOUS mind games can be played with lights/darkness, normal sounds, making them feel as if they're ALWAYS in jet-lag, breakfast at midnight, lunch at 6 AM, supper at 4 PM, then constantly change them removing ALL sources of external light for a couple of weeks - then let them see the sun for an hour, but not at a time when they can accurately discern the correct time. Confused as to the years, days, months, tell me my family is no longer waiting 'cause too many years have gone by, my parents have died (even if they haven't), etc., etc,.

There's SO much you can do WITHOUT physical torture (which is unreliable anyway) if you have the time and patience.

As much as I sit here and think about how long I could take death-metal and rap music, with NOTHING to do for weeks at a time except listen to that noise. Without some mental discipline, I can see where it would cause me a LOT of discomfort. But if I was able to remind myself of some of the PHYSICAL tortures our fellow fellow solders and airmen endured (many of whom STILL bear the scars) at the hands to the North Vietnamese, I think (HOPE) I could endure it for MUCH longer than if I had NOTHING to compare my suffering against.

Either case is NOT pleasant by ANY stretch of the imagination.