Music Stars Demand Records On Bush Administration's Use Of Music For Torture

[kpete]

Source: Huffington Post

Music Stars Demand Records On Bush Administration's Use Of Music For Torture


First Posted: 10-21-09 11:59 PM | Updated: 10-22-09 12:35 AM

A group of prominent musicians are joining a campaign to close Guantanamo Bay and demanding the release of records about what music was used during the potential torture of detainees there and at other facilities.

Some of the more famous names in the music industry are formally lending their prestige to an effort being led by retired generals, progressive groups and a former member of Congress to shut GITMO down. The list includes Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Rosanne Cash, Billy Bragg and the Roots, all of whom are joining the broader National Campaign to Close Guantanamo which was launched earlier in the week.

Hoping to cast further light on the potential illegalities that took place at the detention facility, the group is also working to obtain records about why and how music was used (under laws authorized by the Bush administration) to effectively torture suspected terrorists. The musicians have officially endorsed a Freedom of Information Act request for the declassification of all secret government records pertaining to music utilized during interrogations. At least two members of the coalition, Reznor and Morello, have had their music linked to interrogations.

"Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured -- from water boarding, to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts -- playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums," said Morello, in a statement provided by the NCCG. "Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney's idea of America, but it's not mine. The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me -- we need to end torture and close Guantanamo now."



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/music-stars-de...

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some more here:
Today, a bunch of musicians are the joining the National Campaign against Torture to FOIA information on how music was used in the government’s torture program

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/10/22/rage-again...

[Lerkfish]

1. they ROCK! in more ways than one.

[NoPasaran]

2. I don't know if it was torture in the legal sense

But I used to have a Yoko Ono record that did a very effective job of convincing guests that the party was over and it was time for them to leave.

[Divine Discontent]

3. BAH! loll.... good 1

and is it a positive to these musicians to know their music was used for torture? Ouch, literally!

[mbperrin]

10. They'll be owed royalties, for one thing. Music cannot be used without

compensation.

RIAA is not to be fooled with.

[No Elephants]

27. I always thought, if you buy a record, you can play it, even on a loudspeaker, without paying more.

[mbperrin]

28. Not if it's being used in your business. I managed a wellhead repair

shop in the late 70s, and we were successfully sued by RIAA for playing shop worker's music on a boombox in the shop area.

[jmm]

5. I once bought a used CD featuring

kids singing Christian music for when my neighbors were too loud. It worked well so I gave it to my mom when she had problems with her neighbors.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Ha! I saw a "I STILL BLAME YOKO" bumper sticker recently. And at a Frank Zappa concert

I attended way back when at the Fillmore East, Zappa brought out John Lennon for an amazing encore guitar jam that could have gone all night. However, after a little while, Lennon brought Yoko to join them and she
proceeded to put a large plastic bag over her body (it was some kind of "performance piece") and with the mic underneath started to scream out a "song" Needless to say the hall cleared out faster than drug dealers from a police car.
Torture indeed!

[WriteDown]

4. Barry Manilow has an iron-clad lawsuit.....

20 minutes of Copacabana will break anyone.

[Craftsman]

6. I do wonder which RAP album was most effective?

[Zorra]

25. It was the K-tel "Classic Hits of Rap And Disco" deluxe set.

Anonymous sources say it was played over and over to detainees, and interrogators revealed that it was by far the most effective torture technique in their arsenal.

57 of the detainees swore on the Koran that they were, in fact, Osama bin Laden, and begged to be executed after just one play through of the set.

The reason none of them can go to trial is because they've all gone hopelessly insane.

[AngryAmish]

7. Can I demand Yoko Ono's records, since her music is torture

[spiritual_gunfighter]

12. Bullshit

Walking On Thin Ice by Yoko Ono is a great album. It is 2009 not 1970, isn't it time that people stopped blaming Yoko Ono for breaking up the Beatles. The love of her life was murdered and all people want to do is blame her for something that wasn't her fault in the first place. Let it go.

[AngryAmish]

15. 1. I don't like the Beatles and don't care if she broke them up

2. Her records are awful. It is an empirically proven and inarguable fact.

3. wtf?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

16. Uh, Empirically proven?

Please produce the data. I wasn't aware that a subjective thing like musical taste had empirically proven and inarguable facts attached to them. I make my living as a musician, I have for 15 years. I have released 7 albums on a respected label, I have sold close to 20,000 albums in my career, I have toured Europe twice and the USA 5 times. So maybe I know something about the subject of music.

Yoko Ono's music, even in the early 70's was respected and very forward thinking in many circles it is still to this day. I wont say you are wrong because musical taste is subjective, but for you to state that it is a proven fact that her music is awful is laughable.

[AngryAmish]

18. I'm sorry, Yoko.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

20. My name is Jonathan

It is quite possible you can't help yourself, it wouldn't be the first time I read something idiotic on DU. I am still waiting for you to produce hard evidence of the proven fact that Yoko Ono's music is horrible.

[Gemini Cat]

19. Well, I'm not a musician, however

I like Yoko and find her music soothing. I also think she's a wonderful person as well.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

21. i totally agree with you Gemini

I love the records she made with her husband, especially "My Life With The Lions" and "Seasons Of Glass" is a classic record.

She has proved herself to be a strong and beautiful person both inside and out. I think the influence she had on her husband was one of the main reason his solo career was so strong, especially the Plastic Ono Band debut. What a great record that was.

You don't have to be a musician to recognize that.

[Dreamer Tatum]

22. +1000

[Soylent Brice]

9. K&R

[ensho]

11. good - get the bastards

nt

[hedgehog]

13. As a side note, check out the book, The Men who Stare at Goats,

by Jon Ronson. I picked it up after seeing the trailer for the movie. I don't know about the movie, but the book begins as a bemused investigation of the military trying out pseudo science as a weapon and abruptly takes a dark turn by showing how these investigations led to new torture techniques.

[Wizard777]

14. Tear 'em up!

[Turbineguy]

17. Put their heads in a vice. Hold their eyes open with toothpicks.

and make them watch Pat Robertson.

[Algorem]

23. Bush is above all laws and moral principles.Give up.

[dana_b]

24. kick for Tom and the others

fighting for justice on this!! I know he's been pissed off about this for a loooong time.

[Withywindle]

26. kick

I can't imagine how enraged I'd be in their position. You go, rockers, get those bastards.