Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M. Want Guantanamo Bay Closed

10/23/09 5:57pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Billy Bragg and Roseanne Cash are among the musicians who have joined a coalition that wants the U.S. government to close the detention camp housing terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The artists, who've joined the National Campaign To Close Guantanamo, have a big problem with their music reportedly being played a top volume in order to force terrorism suspects to cooperate with investigators, according to the Associated Press. (Some have suggested the practice of listening to Rage Against The Machine really loud is pretty much torture.)

"We have spent the past 30 years supporting causes related to peace and justice," R.E.M. said in a statement. "To now learn that some of our friends' music may have been used as part of the torture tactics without their consent or knowledge is horrific. It's anti-American, period."

The National Security Archive is reportedly going to file a request through the Freedom Of Information Act to get access to classified records that reportedly detail the extent loud music has been used at Guantanamo Bay.

It has been reported that songs by the likes of Metallica, Don McLean, Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails, Queen, AC/DC, Britney Spears, Marilyn Manson, Deicide and the theme songs from the Barney & Friends and Sesame Street television shows have been played at top volume near prisoners at the camp.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi, an inmate at Guantanamo Bay, was reportedly "exposed to variable lighting patterns" while being forced to listen to Drowning Pool's "Bodies" (definitely torture) in 2003, according to a November 2008 report by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The prisoner reportedly believed listening to music was forbidden, and the track was played with full knowledge of this, according to MTV News.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said he wants the detention camp closed "as soon as practicable and no later than" January 2010. The United States Congress recently passed a measure that will allow the detainees at the prison to stand trial in the U.S.

Conservative politicians object to Guantanamo Bay's closure because they say housing the detainees in American prisons would cause them to incite further terrorist attacks.