‘Sesame Street,’ ‘Barney,’ Meow Mix jingles used to torture prisoners?

Posted Nov 3, 2009 by Walt Belcher

Updated Nov 3, 2009 at 07:45 PM

Forget waterboarding. Reportedly, terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay may have been subjected to blaring music including songs by The Bee Gees, Britney Spears and James Taylor, as well as the Meow Mix jingle and themes to “Sesame Street” and “Barney.”

A coalition of musicians including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Tom Morello and Jackson Browne have filed a series of Freedom of Information Act petitions requesting the full declassification of secret U.S. documentation on the strategy of using music as an interrogation device at Guantanamo and other detention centers. Apparently, blasting music might have been used as a strategy to coerce information from terrorist suspects before 2003.

An investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee cited one detainee who was subjected to hours of the Drowning Pool’s “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor.” Other detainees have been quoted as saying they were blasted with hours of the music of Eminem, Bruce Springsteen and the Bee Gees played at loud volumes as a sleep deprivation technique.

A Freedom of Information Act request filed Oct. 22 names 35 musicians or songs that it says may have been used against detainees at U.S. military detention centers, including the one at Guantanamo Bay.

The National Security Archive—the Washington-based independent research institute that filed the request—is seeking documents that “contain explicit references to the following bands or songs”:

• AC/DC
• Aerosmith
• Barney theme song (By Bob Singleton)
• The 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
• Meatloaf
• 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 music (By Christopher Cerf)
• Stanley Brothers
• “The Star Spangled Banner”
• Tupac Shakur