Red Hot Chili Peppers' Music Used As Torture Technique

Sharon · #1 ● 04-10-2014, 11:43 AM

But the Chili Peppers are great

Exposure to music by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was reportedly one of the torture techniques used by the US Government on terror suspects.

Speaking under condition of anonymity, US officials told Al Jazeera that in at least one detainee's case, the rock band’s tunes were played in “an endless loop”, but did not specify which songs.

The technique was among ten identified torture techniques alleged to have been used by the CIA during the Bush Administration after September 11.

The classified Senate Intelligence Committee report also confirms the CIA secretly operated a network of "black site prisons" out of Guantanamo Bay.

As well as being subjected to the Californian band, captive Zain Abidin Mohammed Husain Abu Zubaydah was also reportedly stripped naked, strapped to a chair and doused with cold water to keep him awake.

Other alleged torture techniques carried out on Abu Zubaydah included shackling him to the ceiling of his cell and stuffing him into a pet crate usually used for dogs.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are not the first band to have had their music used as an implement of torture.

In 2008, reports from British law group Reprieve claimed detainees at Guantanamo Bay had been forced to constantly listen to songs such as Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' and Drowning Pool's 'Bodies'.

And in 2012, a documentary from Al Jazeera showed prisoners may also have been subjected to musical torture of a softer variety.

According to the report, some at Gitmo were forced to wear headphones blasting music from Sesame Street on repeat for hours or days on end.

Christopher Cerf, the award-winning composer of Sesame Street, was stunned to learn how his music was being exploited.

"My first reaction was this just can't possibly be true," he told Al Jazeera.

"...Of course I didn't really like the idea that I was helping break down prisoners, but it was much worse when I heard later that they were actually using the music in Guantanamo to actually do deep, long-term interrogations and obviously to inflict enough pain on prisoners so they would talk."

Back in 2003, the US reportedly used music from the very same educational children’s TV series to "break" Iraqi POWs.

SOURCE

Songs they used at Guantanamo:

Metallica - Enter Sandman
Drowning Pool - Bodies (Let The Bodies Hit The Floor)
AC/DC - Shoot To Thrill
AC/DC - Hells Bells
Barney the Dinosaur - I Love You
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA
David Gray - Babylon
Eminem - White America
Sesame Street Theme
Red Hot Chili Peppers - ???

kizzcee007 · #2 ● 04-10-2014, 12:06 PM

I could put up with that sort of torture...love RHCP

Hobbslefthand · #3 ● 04-10-2014, 12:06 PM

I have to admit, I would find that list pretty hellish to have to endure.

Arkoquisa · #4 ● 04-10-2014, 02:12 PM

eminem would make me want to die. That shit is awful, yet people try to say it is poetry. My god. But could you imagine having to hear the under the bridge song 80 times in a loop, just kill me.