Federal agencies used similar tactics against US citizens in Texas.
... After the failed search and destroy manoeuvre by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents, the FBI rolled in and rigged up a sound system and light show that would make ravers drool with envy. Special Agent DJ Waco spun a relentless 24-7 groove of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" while dropping in Tibetan monk chanting and slaughtered bunny noises in an effort to dislodge the Davidians and their leader David Koresh from their spiritual home. ...
Musicians protest use of songs by US jailers
By ANDREW O. SELSKY
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- Blaring from a speaker behind a metal grate in his tiny cell in Iraq, the blistering rock from Nine Inch Nails hit Prisoner No. 200343 like a sonic bludgeon.
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The auditory assault went on for days, then weeks, then months at the U.S. military detention center in Iraq. Twenty hours a day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The prisoner, military contractor Donald Vance of Chicago, told The Associated Press he was soon suicidal.
The tactic has been common in the U.S. war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. military commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, "to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock."
Now the detainees aren't the only ones complaining. Musicians are banding together to demand the U.S. military stop using their songs as weapons.
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The experience was overwhelming for many. Binyam Mohammed, now a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, said men held with him at the CIA's "Dark Prison" in Afghanistan wound up screaming and smashing their heads against walls, unable to endure more.
"There was loud music, (Eminem's) 'Slim Shady' and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard this nonstop over and over," he told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith. "The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds."
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