Thursday, October 22, 2009

I Would Be Angry Too: Music Stars Make Freedom of Information Demand



Sidebar: As fate would have it I caught the C-Span broadcast of the "Keeper of The Flame Award Ceremony."
The awards are presented by the Neo-Con cabal founded by Frank Gaffney, Jr. This years recipients of the awards was Dick Cheney! Also, practically Cheney's entire former staff received lesser awards described by Gaffney as the "flamettes." Considering the groups interest in furthering nuclear weapons, I say "flamettes" indeed! However, they aren't the story and perhaps I'll pursue a discussion about them at a later date. Suffice it to say that the convicted felon  Lewis "Scooter" Libby also received the "Service Before Self Award", plus a standing ovation.

My current beef though,  is that I agree with the group of musicians, including the "Roots," (currently night show host, Jimmy Fallon's band) and their demand to know if their music was played as part of the torture practices at Guantanamo Bay. If I were a socially conscious artist, I'd be disturbed to think that those detainees will associate my music with those really, really bad experiences.
The list of other musicians and the full story is here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They did use loud music as part of the breaking down process. It is known that prisoners at Gitmo were subjected to a combination of sensory overload through loud music, flashing lights, and sleep deprivation/interruption as well as "rough" physical interrogation techniques such as being battered with a phone book.

I saw a news show on what was going on at Gitmo some years ago where one of the guards said that certain types of music seemed to really drive the prisoners crazy - but I don't remember whether it was hard rock or hip-hop, or some combination.

Tafaraji said...

I could hear some hip-hop and monotone and go nuts. It must have been really hard for those who may have been innocent. The artist are making the FOI reguest as part of the overall effort to close that dreadful camp.