In the hands of a teenager with a powerful set of speakers it is a lethal weapon.
Popular music played at extreme decibel levels will already have been judged torture by many a parent.
But a phenomenon that did no more harm than widen the generation gap has suddenly taken on more sinister overtones with reports that ear-splittingly loud music has been used as a 'sonic bludgeon' by the U.S. military against prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
Human rights groups are protesting that blasting tracks such as Britney Spears's [HIT ME] Baby One More Time and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. into cells at high volumes for hours on end can cause the inmates longterm psychiatric problems.
Now the musicians themselves have joined the fray, furious that their songs are being used to 'break' suspected terrorists.
Bristol-based band Massive Attack and Tom Morello, guitarist with U.S. group Rage Against The Machine have joined a campaign against the practice.
Torture: Britney Spears is on the list of artists whose songs are used to 'break' detainees in American military camps
According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo bragged that he needed only four days to 'break' someone by alternating 16 hours of loud music with just four hours of silence.
The practice has been used often in the 'war on terror', with U.S. forces systematically playing loud music to hundreds of its detainees. Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the former U.S. military chief in Iraq, said the aim was 'to create fear, disorient . . . and prolong capture shock'.
Ruhal Ahmed, from Tipton in the West Midlands, underwent excruciating 'music torture' sessions at Guantanamo. He said his hands were tied to his feet, which were shackled to the floor, forcing him into a painful squat for periods of up to two days.
'You're in agony,' said 27-year-old Mr Ahmed, who was released without charge in 2004.
The pain 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'. But, he said, 'the music makes you feel like you are going mad'.
It is thought that inmates who grew up under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan - when music was banned - are particularly affected by exposure to loud music.
Ethiopian-born Londoner Binyam Mohammed, 30, now a prisoner at Guantanamo, said men held with him at the CIA's 'Dark Prison' in Afghanistan ended up screaming and smashing their heads against walls, unable to endure any more. 'Plenty lost their minds,' he added.
The new campaign is a joint venture between musicians and the human rights group Reprieve, which represents 30 inmates at Guantanamo. There are plans for minutes of silence during concerts and festivals to raise awareness of the issue.
One of the more unlikely protesters is Bob Singleton [Edit: responding to commenter, this article is copied and pasted from Daily Mail (see link at top); readers please see comment for Bob Singleton's actual view on this... shit I hope I'm not related to the Purple Reptilian Barney's song writer!], whose song I Love You - sung by U.S. children's television character Barney the Dinosaur - has been used to 'torture' detainees.
He said he was horrified that 'a song 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'.
Your article's portrayal of Bob Singleton is extremely misleading. Singleton has openly stated that he doesn't mind his music being used at Guantanamo Bay; only that he figured there are better song selections for that kind of job.
ReplyDeleteDetails here:
http://poorrichardsnews.com/2008/12/remember-terrorists-i-love-you.html
Please correct your article to reflect Singleton's actual opinion.
best,
Poor Richard
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/guantanamotorturers22aug05.shtml
ReplyDelete"I thought they were just playing me a CD," said Jamal. "Just playing me a CD. See if I like music or not. Now I've heard this, I'm thinking there must have been something else going on. Now I'm thinking, why did they play that same CD to me as well? They're playing this CD in Iraq and they're playing the same CD in Cuba. It means to me there is a programme. They're not playing music because they think people like or dislike Matchbox Twenty more than other music. Or Kris Kristofferson more than other music. There is a reason. There's something else going on. Obviously I don't know what it is. But there must be some other intent"
Thank you for referring to my website forbiddentopic.blogspot.com. You have a most interesting blog. Music is used in a number of ways for programming purposes. I intentionally avoid words from the "programming" world in my website, but only because I want people not to tune out what I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one day the world will get it. Any hopes the Obama administration can get rid of some of these elements?
Cheers for the info 2nd anony + I directed people to this comment on Bob Singleton in the post 1st anon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Grace, your site was an interesting and unexpected find for me, describing some of the most important and complex issues (avoided intentionally by the mainstream) on dissociation and such things in an easy to understand way, very impressive and has helped clear up some things for me and will do in future as I read more. I've added the 'Know Dissociation' blog to the links on the right as it leads to the other sites too if that's ok.
I don't see Obama changing anything though sadly, I wouldn't trust any politician with so much corporate backing (but I dunno, maybe I'm just overly cynical; we'll see, I think he will quickly 'change' following a terrorist attack).
Wishing you all the best in the future, and thanks for dropping in; I really want to stress if you (or any survivors of abuse) take issue with anything I post on (potential triggers or whatever) then please email me, my biggest worry is having an adverse affect on the whole situation. And words like 'programming' etc do put lay-people off (the masses are effectively conditioned to instantly recoil at anything involving 'conspiracy'/'out there' buzzwords like that and 'mind control' etc), so I think your wise to stay away from it, it's just semantics/wording though really. Thanks again, I really admire what you are doing.
Video of Sam Lufti's sister saying Britney Spears is NOT crazy, but is a prisoner of her abusive father:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.radaronline.com/videos#/19087387001