The Declassified Songs that were Used by the CIA as Torture

Did anyone read the article mentioned in the linked article?

"Read about the guards here."

When he was first ordered to soften up detainees, "it didn't seem so weird," Ben says; nothing in the war zone was normal. "You don't think about what you're doing until later." He was asked to stand in on dozens of interrogations, to help intimidate the subject: one more body, one more gun. The small room was usually crowded with guards, military-intelligence officers, and ogas. They were told to wear T-shirts, not uniforms that would signal their rank. Under the single bulb, the interrogator would loom above a prisoner seated in a child-size chair. Sometimes the room suddenly went dark and strobe lights flashed on. Other times the soldiers would bang pots and pans in the detainee's face, blare loud music, blast air horns and sirens. The sounds were meant to disorient, but also to mask the screams. More than half the time, even if they were cooperative the detainees were beaten, kicked out of their chairs, punched in the windpipe or gut, pulled by the ears—blows that wouldn't leave lasting marks. Occasionally things got out of hand, but with their medical training, the military-intelligence officers could stitch up or bandage injuries, avoiding a call to the medics and an entry in the logbooks that the Red Cross could read.

The first time Ben saw a detainee get beaten, he took the lead interrogator aside afterward to ask, "Was this stuff really allowed? Didn't it violate the Geneva Conventions?"

"These aren't pows; they're detainees," he was told. "Those rules are antiquated and don't apply. You can't get any information without breaking that stuff." Ben asked other officers, but "it was basically like, 'Dude, you're actually worried about how we're treating them? They wouldn't afford you the same respect.'"

...Ben saw what anyone could: All prisoners—civilians and combatants—are protected against violence. There is no separate category for unlawful combatants. "Outrages upon personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment" are prohibited. Abuses like those at the Tiger base were "grave breaches." War crimes.

In the summer of 2003, the interrogators threw a detainee against a concrete wall, punched him in the neck and gut, kicked him in the knees, threw him outside, and dragged him back in by his hair. For the entire two-hour ordeal, the prisoner wouldn't talk; Ben later found out he spoke Farsi and couldn't understand the interrogators' English and Arabic.

Sure it's fun to poke fun at the list and come up with our own songs we would find torturous to listen to for hours on end but let's not forget the bigger picture. The abuse of POWs or "detainees", seems more often than not abusive and more or less condoned by the structure of the system. Aren't we supposed to better than the scum we're fighting against?

originally posted by: WakeUpBeer
Aren't we supposed to better than the scum we're fighting against?

We play you Barry Manilow. They set you on fire. PoTAYto, PoTAHto.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

I didn't read it.



I'd rather focus on sh#ty music than actual War Crimes.


Not out of apathy...

Simply to dispel anger and heartache on my ATS visits, when I really just wish to learn.

a reply to: Bedlam

Yeah the torture began and ended at a few lame jingles...



No offence, but get real.

a reply to: wasaka

I was surprised not to see Skinny Puppy on that list. They actually filed a lawsuit as a result, once they found out their music was used as torture:

www.theguardian.com...

meow mix that would just send me laughing ,probably light chuckling after a month or so..


one for their list, only an hour , they'll have to set up a youtube account and make payments if they want longer looping files



funboxbox

a reply to: Bigburgh

Happy 41st B-Day!!! May You have Many More!!!

a reply to: wasaka

They left out "Cat's in the Cradle" and the one about the cake left out in the rain.

I think it's subjective.

What is torture to one person is music to another. If you subjected me to top 40 music, I'd tell you anything you wanted to know within hours. I can't stand that crap. Yet Skinny Puppy is music to my ears.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

I get it. I can never spend too long digging into these types of subjects because of the disgust that comes with knowing about them coupled with knowing there is pretty much nothing I can do about it.

As for songs I would use to torture people..

Dethklok Dethalbum 1 seems fitting.

I like it but it's the kind of music many don't. Especially in the ME.

As for music I would find torturous to listen to hours on end?

Any number of Japanese anime theme songs lol.

originally posted by: Bybyots
How did Barry Manilow not make it on to that list?

Obviously they needed them alive so they could talk.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

I'd say anything japanese or korean in general. K/J-pop is some of the most atrocious crap I've ever heard.

Hmmm... What else?

-Country music (the crappy kind, not Johnny Cash)
-Top 40 American Pop Music (Think Ke$ha or Niki Minaj)
-Any hipsters playlist full of crappy indie rock

Also, this guy:



Pretty sure I just gave the CIA a how to torture list...

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

The powerlessness is a real heartbreaker...


2015?

It's not a benchmark for civilised society...


It's an overused digit in the guise of civilised society.




Inhumane treatment...?

Meh... The Grammys are on the Brainwash Box...

Here is a 10 hour loop..gets pretty annoying fast
www.youtube.com...

a reply to: Baddogma

Strangely enough it is the favorite go-to for the morning sports radio guys on Friday and that is why I try not to listen to them on Friday even during college football season which is tough because they have Stan Weber's analysis then. And no one knows the local college teams better than Stan.

But really ... who doesn't like Copa?

a reply to: wasaka

Damn-They are using my playlist!!

It's missing Disco Apache,though.

a reply to: wasaka

c'mon, if any of those terrorists didn't find themselves tapping their toe to at least one of those songs after the hundredth time...

I'm surprised this wasn't on their list. This drives me mad.

originally posted by: ketsuko
So I am torturing myself regularly ...

I am sure the many kid soldiers that were running the circuses in Iraq and in prisons thought this music is cool and would be offensive to the middle easterners.