WASHINGTON — Was the theme to “Sesame Street” really played to torture prisoners held at Guantanamo and other detention camps? What about Don McLean’s “American Pie”? Or the Meow Mix jingle? Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”?
A high-profile coalition of artists — including the members of Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and the Roots — demanded last week that the government release the names of all the songs that, since 2002, were blasted at prisoners for hours, even days, on end, to try to coerce cooperation or as a method of punishment.
Dozens of musicians endorsed a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the National Security Archive, a Washington-based independent research institute, seeking the declassification of all records related to the use of music in interrogation practices.
The artists also launched a formal protest of the use of music in conjunction with torture.
“I think every musician should be involved,” said Ros anne Cash in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It seems so obvious. Music should never be used as torture.”
“The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me,” Tom Morello, formerly of the band Rage Against the Machine, said in a statement. “We need to end torture and close Guantanamo now.”
The musicians’ announcement was coordinated with the recent call by veterans and retired Army generals to shut Guantanamo.
It is part of a renewed effort to pressure President Barack Obama to keep his promise to close the prison in Cuba in his first year in office.
A White House spokesman said music is no longer used as an instrument of torture, part of a shift in policy on interrogations that Obama made on his second full day in office.
“Sound at a certain level creates sensory overload and breaks down subjectivity and can (bring about) a regression to infantile behavior,” said Suzanne Cusick, a music professor at New York University who has studied, lectured about and written extensively on the use of music as torture in the current wars. “Its effectiveness depends on the constancy of the sound, not the qualities of the music.”
Played at a certain volume, she said, “it simply prevents people from thinking.”
List of artists
The request asks for documents that include but are not limited to references to these performers or songs:
AC/DC
Aerosmith
“Barney” theme song (by Bob Singleton)
Bee Gees
Britney Spears
Bruce Springsteen
Christina Aguilera
David Gray
Deicide
Don McLean
Dope
Dr. Dre
Drowning Pool
Eminem
Hed P.E.
James Taylor
Limp Bizkit
Marilyn Manson
Matchbox Twenty
Meat Loaf
Meow Mix jingle
Metallica
Neil Diamond
Nine Inch Nails
Pink
Prince
Queen
Rage Against the Machine
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Redman
Saliva
“Sesame Street” theme (by Christopher Cerf)
Stanley Brothers
“The Star-Spangled Banner”
Tupac Shakur
