PEARL JAM, TOM MORELLO, NINE INCH NAILS Demand Files On Use Of Music In Torture

According to The Pulse of Radio, PEARL JAM, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist Tom Morello and NINE INCH NAILS are among the musical acts that demanded on Thursday (October 22) that the U.S. government release the names of songs that were played at deafening volume for hours or days on end to torture prisoners since 2002, according to the Washington Post. Dozens of musicians supported the filing of a Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, which seeks to declassify all records related to the use of music in so-called "enhanced interrogation" practices.

Tom Morello said in a statement, "The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me. We need to end torture and close Guantanamo now."

Roseanne Cash, country singer and daughter of the late Johnny Cash, told the Post, "Music should never be used as torture . . . It's beyond the pale. It's hard to even think about."

Other artists throwing their names behind the campaign to release the songs include R.E.M., Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Steve Earle. The artists just want to find out which songs were used, and will explore any possible legal options once that is learned.

The same artists have also launched a new lobbying effort to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where much of the torture under the Bush Administration took place. The Obama Administration ended the use of torture as an interrogation technique on the President's second day in office, although it may prove difficult to close the camp down by the end of his first year in office, as promised in the 2008 campaign.

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich appeared as a guest on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" last April 27 (see video below),where Maddow asked Ulrich how he felt about METALLICA's music being used to psychologically torture prisoners of war. "There is a lot of METALLICA music that's helping a lot of scared 18, 19 and 20-year-old kids out there who are out on the front lines and who are doing a hell of a job on behalf of you and me and the rest of us," he said. "But obviously when you hear stories like the one you're telling, it all seems so bizarre and so strange that METALLICA's music, which generally sort of facilitates bringing people together, is used in these bizarre circumstances. It's certainly not something that we in any way advocate or condone."

Suzanne G. Cusick, a professor at New York University who has studied the use of music as torture, told the Post, "Sound at a certain level creates sensory overload and breaks down subjectivity and can (bring about) a regression to infantile behavior. Its effectiveness depends on the constancy of the sound, not the qualities of the music."

Jayne Huckerby, a research director at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, affirmed that the prolonged use of loud music to control or coerce prisoners is a violation of the U.N. Convention Against Torture, to which the U.S. is a party, and constitutes both torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The German-language television network 3SAT spoke to METALLICA guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield last year about the use of METALLICA's music to torture Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prisoners. "Part of me is proud is because they chose METALLICA," Hetfield said about the reports that the band's song "Enter Sandman" was used during the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani — known as the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11 — and that listening to the track brought al-Qahtani to tears "because he thought he was hearing the sound of Satan." James added, "It's strong; it's music that's powerful. It represents something that they don't like — maybe freedom, aggression… I don't know… freedom of speech. And then part of me is kind of bummed about it that people worry about us being attached to some political statement because of that. We've got nothing to do with this and we're trying to be as apolitical as possible, 'cause I think politics and music, at least for us, don't mix. It separates people, [and] we wanna bring people together. So, so be it. I can't say 'Stop.' I can't say 'Do it.' It is just a thing — it's not good or bad."

Hetfield talking to 3SAT about use of METALLICA's music to torture Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prisoners (go to four-minute, 45-second mark):

Former Guantanamo prisoner Ruhal Ahmed describes his experience of being tortured by earsplitting music in the hands of the U.S. authorities: