Interrogators played Christina Aguilera, Sesame Street, and ‘Barney’ theme song to torture detainees.
Interrogators played Christina Aguilera, Sesame Street, and ‘Barney’ theme song to torture detainees.
One of the Bush administration’s psychological torture techniques against detainees has been to blast loud music to deprive detainees of sleep, causing some to “knock their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off.” According to British human rights group Reprieve, these are among the songs that the U.S. has used frequently:
– “Dirrty,” Christina Aguilera
– “F*ck Your God,” Deicide
– “Shoot to Thrill,” AC/DC
– “We are The Champions,” Queen
– “I Love You,” from “Barney and Friends”
– “Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen
– “Babylon,” David Gray
– “White America,” Eminem
– “Sesame Street” theme song
Others include Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Don McLean, Lil’ Kim, Limp Bizkit, Matchbox 20, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Tupac Shakur. Reprieve has launched a new anti-music torture initiative, Zero dB.
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Stupid and cruel — more Bush legacy!
December 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pmAnd the grammy winner of this years best torture song by a duet goes to Barney and Friends.
Question. Did the artists get royalties when they played them?
Seems only fair.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:39 pmAt least it wasn’t country music. That would have been beyond cruel.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:39 pmMost of that crap would drive me up the wall, too.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:39 pmExposing prisoners to most of these songs, during waking hours at least, would not be torture. However, playing “I Love You” from “Barney and Friends” anytime to anyone most certainly is.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:41 pmI was going to post my patented smart a$$ remarks about some of the songs being torturous, but then I read this line:
causing some to “knock their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off.
Suddenly, it doesn’t seem very funny.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:43 pmNo, not funny at all.
And remember, these are detainees who have yet to proven innocent or guilty.
Like being at the scene of an accident, and get arrested and tortured, just because.
I weep for our country.
No Toby Keith? He is going to be so bummed.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:43 pmThere’s that word again…..”Torture”
December 10th, 2008 at 2:44 pmPerhaps a loud speaker set up in Preston Hollow would be an appropriate housewarming in January. I am sure the neighbors would welcome the musical entertainment.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:46 pmAnyone have any questions now as to “Joe the plumber”’s motives in obtaining a recording contract?
December 10th, 2008 at 2:48 pmJust the ceaseless repetition of “It’s A Small World,” like on that ride at Disneyland, would have cracked me inside a week…
December 10th, 2008 at 2:50 pmYankeluh Says:
“Perhaps a loud speaker set up in Preston Hollow would be an appropriate housewarming in January. I am sure the neighbors would welcome the musical entertainment.”
How about the Dixie Chicks blairing 24/7.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:51 pmIt didn’t work in Waco, Texas!
December 10th, 2008 at 2:53 pmThat’s not torture, it’s unmitigated Hell!
December 10th, 2008 at 2:54 pmHaving heard Don McClean’s American Pie 9 times a day on the radio when I was in high school, I can understand the torment.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:55 pmIt’s .. a lov-ly day .. to be to-ge-ther
December 10th, 2008 at 2:57 pmI know that life can’t get any better.
Play the kidnapped prisoners a tape of Sarah Palin talking for 45 minutes and maybe they’ll have a case.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pmdeicide rocks!…
December 10th, 2008 at 3:04 pmIf torture was the goal, they could have just sat them captively in front of a TV tuned to Fox News.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:08 pmBesides driving them out of their minds, they could hear Bush, Perino, O’Reilly and their ilk explain how they are not in fact being tortured.
Nevar at 2:55pm,
We must be about the same age, that’s my worst memory of music in high school, that and “D.O.A.”
I was listening to Ellen Ratner report this story on the Hartmann show, and the first song she mentioned was “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, but it’s not on the list here?
December 10th, 2008 at 3:13 pmSligthly O/T but on the subject of torture. An article online today from Reuters about a muslim who was detained in NYC after 9/11. He has a lawsuit claiming abuses while being held. The twist to his lawsuit is that it includes John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller. The Supreme Court is deciding whether the lawsuit can go forward with Ashcroft and Mueller’s names involved.
from the article:
“”I don’t know on what basis any of these allegations against the high-level officials are made,” Justice Antonin Scalia told Alexander Reinert, the attorney arguing for Iqbal.”
“The Bush administration’s top courtroom lawyer, Solicitor General Gregory Garre, argued that Ashcroft and Mueller have immunity, that they cannot be held personally liable and that the lawsuit against them must be dismissed.”
“Chief Justice John Roberts expressed doubt to Reinert that the lawsuit against Ashcroft and Mueller can go forward.
“What you have to allege are some facts showing that they knew of a policy that was discriminatory based on ethnicity and country of origin,” Roberts said.”
What is this bullshit coming from the SCROTUS? Their take on the validity of this case is not whether Ashcroft and Mueller crafted and initiated a policy of torture but whether their policy was discriminatory towards a specific ethnicity or country! The “immunity” alleged by Bush’s lawyer is what needs to be questioned here along with the White House’s crafting of a torture policy. Scalia and Roberts both deserve massive painful coronaries. Their constant Right Wing-serving contortions and blaitant mis-readings of the Constitution should be grounds for impeachment and permanent dis-barment from practicing law!
December 10th, 2008 at 3:16 pmSorry, in my anger I forgot the link:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4B960L20081210
December 10th, 2008 at 3:19 pmYou’d think that after the Waco fiasco they’d learn that using loud music to get what you want from a detainee is a completely worthless tactic.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:23 pmI know most of my comments on here are ‘4 teh lulz’ and some of them probably rubbed people the wrong way, but my sense of humor is gone on this score.
Some of these people are no doubt human filth. Some of them are probably innocents. ALL of them have been unjustly detained for YEARS.
Charge them.
Try them.
Hang them as applicable.
Why doesn’t our legal system seem to work anymore?
December 10th, 2008 at 3:25 pmit would be poetic justice if these artists levied a copyright infrigement lawsuit against the bush white house and the department of defense.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:27 pmHonestly, this is such low level information. Those detainees who DIED in U.S. custody weren’t killed because of the selection of music blasted at them. Get real.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:31 pmIf anyone hasn’t already, buy and read “The Men Who Stare at Goats”.
It’s incredibly applicable to this, and the loopy to insane mindset of US Military Psyops. It’s also a stellar read.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pmI think it’s worth noting that Stevie Benton of Drowning Pool takes pride in their song “Bodies” being used in this fashion. I found his remarks at the end of the linked article to be troubling and I would encourage you all to write him a little note on their myspace page. I had some choice words for him this morning.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pmSo when do we see The Torture Collection from Time-Life Records?
December 10th, 2008 at 3:56 pmimpeachcheneythenbush Says:
Honestly, this is such low level information. Those detainees who DIED in U.S. custody weren’t killed because of the selection of music blasted at them. Get real.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
________
This is real. Deliberate sleep deprivation is torture. There’s no grey area here.
Yes, the actual selection of music used is merely a footnote, but the fact that these tortured detainees didn’t die doesn’t make their torture any less heinous, or any more legal.
Once we start overlooking certain techniques, or declaring certain types of torture to be less evil than others, we walk down a VERY dangerous path. We need to condemn torture in all its forms – even the ones that seem trivial.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:59 pmBozo The Neoclown Says:
it would be poetic justice if these artists levied a copyright infrigement lawsuit against the bush white house and the department of defense.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
_____________
Technically, DOD would need to obtain a performance license from BMI and ASCAP for this type of public performance of copyrighted music. If they didn’t, the artists involved may indeed have a case.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:02 pmOMG, I can’t believe they left out the one song that repeated play would guarentee a confession:
“Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:04 pmOne note from m’n'm and I would have talked.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:04 pmActually, our legal system would work fine if the Bush administration would use it. But then they wouldn’t be able to torture, kidnap, invade and destroy at will.
REPEAL THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT!
December 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm“Interrogators played Christina Aguilera, Sesame Street, and ‘Barney’ theme song to torture detainees.”
Sick, man, real sick…
December 10th, 2008 at 4:11 pmBad as this is, atleast they didn’t play Ashcroft’s Let the Eagle Soar or whatever that lame ass shit is
December 10th, 2008 at 4:18 pmThanks Hussein. I think it cannot be overstressed that psychological torture, especially sleep deprivation, drives people mad. While they are listening to the very loud music (16 hours on/four off), they are also in stress positions. Destroying a person’s mind is heinous. I suspect these playlists are part of psyops/propoganda–a red herring to invite glib and flippant responses. Of course this is torture. That’s the point.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:19 pmI imagine RATM are pretty pissed right now that their music is being used in this way.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:20 pmSo I don’t get it. Is it the volume? Does it just not stop? How does it work?
December 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pmAlejandro Says:
So I don’t get it. Is it the volume? Does it just not stop? How does it work?
December 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Exactly.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:35 pmI actually have some of those songs on my iPod, especially Rage.
The Barney song, however, is torture no matter how it’s used.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pmBut, but, but….just last week Dana Perino said that the US doesn’t torture.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:10 pmNo Lee Greenwood? Might have caused them to kill themselves.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:14 pmAs Condi keeps saying that the US doesn’t torture, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind a loudspeaker with Barney for 24 hours a day.
After all, she either has to enjoy it or admit she was lying.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:47 pmHank Jr. could probably work up a couple of torture songs. I doubt he’s got much going on since the Palin campaign folded up.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:51 pmMusic and light vs. sensory deprivation as a torture technique was developed by the KGB. At the time people found out about it, we (the U.S.) said it was a very naughty thing to do and wagged our fingers at them quite strenuously from way up here on our high horse.
As it’s the same technique they were using then, it must still be a very naughty thing to do.
Therefore, we shouldn’t do it.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:40 pm#31 – Hussain Toasterhead – I’m in no way saying one kind of torture is worse than another, and sleep deprivation certainly can be considered as torture. My objection is to the playlist given, which seemed pointless to me. Noise of any kind: music, blasting horns, screaming people that results in severe sleep deprivation as a psychological tool is reprehensible. It just seemed like a superficial treatment of a very serious problem.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:59 pmWhere can I get the album? Any base PX or do i have to order it from Gitmo?
http://thelieshavenotimproved.blogspot.com/
December 10th, 2008 at 8:49 pmBarney is torture at any volume.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:15 pmimpeachcheneythenbush Says:
It just seemed like a superficial treatment of a very serious problem.
Precisely! This is meant to distract. People start to look at the song list, and they either think, “Oh, I LIKE that song/band”, or, “That song/band sucks”, all the way to the, “That song/band would be torture to hear at any time” kind of thoughts. Those are natural responses because we recognize this music as a part of culture. Whether you like the song/band or not, if you were detained somewhere and had that one song played at a volume that JUST falls short of hearing damage for 16 hours on, 4 hours of silence, for days on end, you would not care about whether or not you liked the song, you would want 1) the noise to stop, and 2) to be allowed to sleep.
So, instead of discussing torture, we end up discussing the music used to achieve the torture, which diminishes the discussion, and can swiftly even dismiss the whole thought of ‘torture’ in the discussion. Kind of like discussing the purity of the water used in waterboarding, or what kind of board they were laid on (”You know, if they used some splintery plywood, well, that’s torture enough… ha, ha….”), or what brand of pliers they used to pull fingernails. Plus our own cultural familiarity with the music makes it seem less sinister. As someone else pointed out — the noise used is completely inconsequential to the technique of torture. THAT they used songs instead of something else (the sound of cracked-up howler monkeys in mating season is an option) is inconsequential.
It IS a clever propoganda tactic, and it is what the reich has been pretty good at, which is why they have gotten away with the depths of immoral criminality that they have over these last 8 years. The general public has been fooled many times by this basic strategy — it is kind of a bait-and-switch (I am certain there is a term for it that applies to the propoganda angle, but darned if I can think of it right now).
December 11th, 2008 at 7:51 amtotal amateurs. where’s billy joel?
December 11th, 2008 at 11:33 am