Rock stars demand details of Guantanamo music 'torture'

Published on Thursday 22 October 2009 17:50

REM, Pearl Jam and Billy Bragg are among a coalition of musicians demanding that the US government release details of music they claim was used as torture at Guantanamo Bay.

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has been lodged on behalf of campaigners in a bid to force authorities to release classified records relating to the use of loud music as part of the interrogation of inmates.

Former detainees at the centre have alleged that songs from the likes of AC/DC, Britney Spears, the Bee Gees and Sesame Street were played at an ear-splitting level to break terrorist suspects.

The FOIA was sent today to a number of US agencies including the CIA, FBI and Department of Defence by the National Security Archive in Washington on behalf of the campaign group.

Thomas Blanton, executive director of the archive, said: "At Guantanamo, the US government turned a jukebox into an instrument of torture."

CIA spokesman George Little said that music was used for security and "not for punitive purposes".

He added that the volume was at levels "far below a live band".

But campaigners have said that it was part of a programme of interrogation that transgressed international law.

Jayne Huckerby, research director at New York University's Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice, has studied the use of music in interrogations.

She said that the CIA employed loud music to "humiliate, terrify, punish, disorient and deprive detainees of sleep, in violation of international law".

Rage Against The Machine are among the bands whose music is thought to have been used at Guantanamo Bay.

Guitarist Tom Morello, who has signed up to the campaign to close the centre, said: "The fact that music I helped create was used as a tactic against humanity sickens me. We need to end torture and close Guantanamo now."

President Barack Obama vowed to close the Cuban-based detention centre as one of his first acts in office.

But plans to shut Guantanamo by early next year have since been beset by logistical problems that could see its eventual closure put back by months.