At a recent “Music and Torture” conference near New York, [Chloe] Davies described the experience of several former detainees including Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who moved to Britain as a teenager. He was released from Guantanamo in February after nearly seven years in U.S. and Moroccan custody.
During interrogations in Morocco, Mohamed reported being physically tortured, including having his penis repeatedly cut with a scalpel, yet he said what he found hardest was having loud music blasted at him in the dark for days on end.
“After a while, I felt pretty much dead, I didn’t feel I existed at all,” Davies quoted Mohamed as saying.
Another former detainee, Rhuhel Ahmed, thought initially it was a joke when his captors played rapper Eminem’s music, Davies said.
“But after so long, when he started to hallucinate, he said he got why they were doing it,” she said, quoting Ahmed as saying, “The music torture stripped away the last sanctuary you had in your mind.”
I know what he means!
Davies said Reprieve was also discussing with U.S. lawyers possible legal action that musicians may take against the U.S. government to claim compensation for copyright infringement. She said musician Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was among those interested in pursuing legal action.
According to Reprieve, music that has been used ranges from heavy metal such as AC/DC, Aerosmith and Metallica to the theme tune from the children’s show “Sesame Street.”
The thing is, that same torture is going on right now, being committed against our own young people! Some of the torturers are driving around with their windows rolled down, torturing the general public! Cases are reported of thousands of people being herded into large auditoriums, whereupon they are subjected to mass musical torture.
Seriously, I don’t intend to minimize actual torture. This actually has me sympathizing with the prisoners, though not with the indignant musicians.
What are some songs that you would find torturous, that if you had to hear them over and over, you would spill every secret you knew just to make it stop?
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