If simulated drowning isn't enough, you can add music to America's weapons of mass degradation. Amped-up tunes are used as "sonic bludgeons" at US military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.
Songs such as Britney Spears's "Baby One More Time" are turned up and set to repeat to create fear, disorientation, and a prolonged capture shock. It can cause long-term psychiatric problems if blasted for extended periods of time. And it is!
Prisoners, who grew up in Afghanistan under the music-banning Taliban, are hypersensitive. The blasted music leads some to scream and smash their heads against walls. "Plenty," one former prisoner said, "lost their mind."
A Guantanamo interrogator bragged in an FBI memo that he only needed "four days to 'break' someone by alternating 16 hours of loud music with just four hours of silence." So, mission accomplished?
What's Guantanamo breaking down to? To see the top eight songs, read more.
- "Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen
- "Babylon," David Gray
- "We Are the Champions," Queen
- "American Pie," Don McLean
- "Stayin' Alive," Bee Gees
- "Dirrty," Christina Aguilera
- Theme song from Sesame Street
- "I Love You" from Barney and Friends
Tabitha
L.a.p.a.
Maison Martin Margiela
Those are some strange choices. American Pie? I love you?
1anything from barney would make me break down too. But I love queen and i don't get how any song of theirs can be torture lol
2Um...what exactly is the point of making them crazy? Would anything they say at that point be useful?
I imagine if someone is smashing their hear into a wall to make it stop they will tell us whatever we want to hear.
3The article offers no explanation of why we'd want to make people crazy Zeze. I guess once you start torturing people, you get 'creative'.
4ANY song played over and over loudly would get annoying and drive anyone bonkers. I read an article about this the other day. I guess some of the bands who made the songs are complaining that they are being used for something like this.
5That would drive me crazy too..but like zeze said whats the point?
6Is it bad to note that I like 3 of the pictured artists?
7They should have put the "lambchops" song up there!
"this is the song that doesnt end. yes it goes on and on my friends. some people started singing it not knowing what it was. and they continue singing forever just because..."
8Dave it's bad and it has nothing to do with the fact that it is torture music.
9I don't see how this accomplish anything for those guards except more anger and tears.
10I would think any Disney song would work tons better than these.
11That's cute. But you forgot 'Tomorrow' by Annie and The Winams. They'd confess everything and make some stuff up just to get you to stop.
12especially "It's a Small World Afterall" That one would get me within an hour. Just thinking about it would drive me to drink. SPeaking of, I need one now.
13Oh, 'The Rainbow Connection' and 'Imagine'... But to touch their humanity.
14Play anything Katy Perry,Britney or Jessica Simpson; or Julianne Hough to name a few on a continuous loop.. I'm jumping off a bridge!!!
I can definitely see Barney causing someone to bash their head and have a break down.
15I'm surprised "It's a Small World" isn't the number one choice.
I Love You" from Barney and Friends would totally drive me insane. Seriously that is cruel and unusual.
16Just listening one time to Born in the USA would drive me insane.
17How random is the David Gray song on there?
Britney's new song should be on there. I was making my friend listen to it the other day and he called it torture. "Womanizah! Womanizah! Womanizah!"
18I think that this type of sensory bombardment lowers a person's ability to resist questioning. You just want it to stop.
19I have to say this is kind of a strange topic, but I have been listening to the Pierces "Secret" lately, and it would be the perfect song. If I condoned torture, that is.
"Got a secret
Can you keep it?
Swear this one you'll save
Better lock it, in your pocket
Taking this one to the grave
If I show you then I know you
Won't tell what I said
Cause two can keep a secret
If one of them is dead…
Why do you smile
Like you have told a secret
Now you're telling lies
Cause you're the one to keep it
But no one keeps a secret
No one keeps a secret
Why when we do our darkest deeds
Do we tell?
They burn in our brains
Become a living hell
Cause everyone tells
Everyone tells…"
And it has a very haunting melody.
20Hahaha!
I like Xtina's Dirty!
How about that Billy Ray Cyrus "Down on the Chattahoochee"! Aaaah!
21Anything hardcore would break me.
22This list surprises me about half of the songs don't seem 'that bad',hell I love Bablylon and american pie.
All I know is that one time I fell asleep listening to my Beatles one cd and somehow managed to get 'yellow submarine' stuck on repeat. Needless to say I woke up feeling disoriented and confused, you could definitely use that song to break people.
23I'm surprised there's not a Barry Manilow song on that list.
24"Down at the copa, copacabana..."
yes that WOULD drive me crazy!!
I like womanizzza...it gets stuck in my head!
25hmm../..
26What about one of Heidi's song from her album? does she have an album? Surely it must be horrible!
Anything country would make me squeal. and you would only have to play it once.
27We've become frighteningly desensitized haven't we?
28Pssst, momma, I like the Womanizer song too. The fact that I also like Gossip Girl, which used the song in one of its promos for my favorite character, totally doesn't help
29I enjoy Womanizer too. But for 6 hours at full blast? Maybe not so much. BTW Blair and Chuck are totally my favorite characters. Vanessa and Rufus on the other hand should both lapse into comas and die off the show.
Caterpillar Any country song would do it for me too. They are like nails on a chalkboard.
30kas- Vanessa makes me so...ack she is so horribly boring with the "vaguely ethnic" Brooklyn girl shtick. She wears big hoops! She doesn't have parents or go to school! She makes weird faces! And her part is so inconsistently written! Obvs. this is not all the actress's fault, but they need to write her off the show NOW. And Rufus is just like a big boring bowl of oatmeal. 90's rocker indeed...
31kas--me too. Last week's episode only solidified my love for those two crazy kids. I hope they get work after GG and don't go the way of the OC cast members.
There was also a rumor floating around that Lily and Rufus would be getting a spin-off. I think that's been debunked, but still--bad idea. I also understand that Rufus is supposed to be a bit out of touch, but seriously? That turtleneck sweater they put him in last week? Unforgivable.
32That is amazing that they use Babylon b/c I freaking hate that song too! That's a riot.
33Snow, I agree with everything you said about Vanessa. She is a lost cause at this point and nothing but a target for the good characters. And the idea that Nate would pass up J for her? Bleh! That pairing is too boring.
Em I would mourn the loss of Lily if it meant we could be rid of Rufus for good. And yeah, I don't buy him as a former 90s Alt rocker either.
34I think a never-ending stream of Holiday music would do me in. I think I've voiced my loathing of that musical genre already.
35Old school Spice Girls
36Beatles "Revolution #9"
I think I think too much.
I think.
37Ya think so, blue?
38
39how bout anything from soldah boy (however you spell his name)!?
Just hearing "YAAh TRICK YAhh!" once drives me insane.
or any song that has puff daddy in the background saying "yea...what...bad boooy...yea yea yea...what what what?"
40Pitbull and Lil John, Jump up lets get crazy.
41WHAAAAAAT?!!
42Ugh remember that period of time where it seemed every rap/hip hop/r&b song had Lil John in it? With his stupid "yeah"'s and "okay"'s. I think that's what killed FM radio for me.
43yes I do..now its lil wayne!
44Brilliant... Altho I cringe whenever I hear Madonna from the 80's... Sorry sugars, I cannot stand that woman's muzak!!
45Oh man, if you really want to get to people play "Bohemian Rhapsody" on loop. Though I love Queen's vintage tune from Wayne's World, I can only listen to it every now and then.
Could you imagine being stationed in one of these locations?
Guard 1: What's going to be played today?
46Guard 2: You make it sound like we have a DJ or something? We've got screeching divas or overplayed Americana.
Guard 3: Again? Can't we get something from the past five years up in here?! I'm really starting to feel my age here.
Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.