Muslim Prisoners

The CIA paid psychologists $81 million to devise brutal tactics for use on terror suspects, and they're suing


Erin Brodwin
Jun. 22, 2017, 1:30 PM


After a doctor X-rayed one prisoner's badly broken feet, his colleague gave interrogators the go-ahead to force him to stand for 52 hours.

They were employed in an $81-million dollar CIA interrogation program which ran for at least seven years under the Bush administration beginning in 2002.

Public documents suggest it was led by two military psychologists, John Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, whose techniques are widely seen as torture.

A lawsuit filed in 2017 by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of former prisoners shines new light on the grisly details of the tactics the doctors approved for use on terrorism suspects in an attempt to extract information from them after the events of September 11, 2001. These tactics, which range from water-boarding to "walling" — a method that involves pushing a person into a flexible plywood wall so hard that it creates a disturbing sound that pierces the ear — are widely considered torture by experts.
Mitchell, Jessen & Associates

In 2002 after CIA officials approached them with a request for techniques to obtain information from potential terrorist suspects, Mitchell and Jessen met in a cubicle, sat at a typewriter, and typed out a list, they said in a new video deposition obtained by the New York Times.

The methods they listed included sleep deprivation and waterboarding, and were essentially reverse-engineered from techniques psychologists had trained US soldiers to use to resist interrogations.

Mitchell and Jessen also used a psychological theory outlined by Martin Seligman to make detainees more pliable, according to the 2014 Senate report. The theory, called "learned helplessness" describes how people who are subjected to pain and suffering give up trying to escape once they begin to see a situation as beyond their control.

In 2014, Seligman told The Times he was "grieved and horrified" to hear that his work had been used in connection with the brutal interrogations.
Other doctors embedded in the CIA program

While Jessen and Mitchell allegedly designed the program, dozens of other medical professionals oversaw and participated in it.
james mitchellJames Mitchell speaks on Fox News. Fox News
"The torture could not proceed [without] medical supervision," Atul Gawande, a surgeon and author, wrote on Twitter shortly after the Senate report on the CIA program was made public. "The medical profession was deeply embedded in this inhumanity."

Doctors, physician's assistants, and a team of medical officers were present for the interrogations throughout every step of the process, according to the Senate report.

The Office of Medical Services, the agency designed to advise the US State Department on health issues, was responsible for deciding when detainees' injuries were healed enough to allow interrogators to resume their brutal tactics. Physicians told CIA officers what temperature water they should use to waterboard detainees and suggested they use saline solution instead of plain water so as to not risk prisoners being killed by water poisoning.
Doctors' increasing involvement

Research suggests that since Sept. 11, medical professionals have been increasingly involved in assisting the government in crafting its violent interrogation techniques.

In a 2004 essay in the New England Journal of Medicine, Robert Jay Lifton, a Harvard trauma expert who served as an Air Force psychiatrist, wrote that American doctors were involved in the torture at Abu Ghraib, an US-run detention center in Iraq.

They "were part of a command structure that permitted, encouraged, and sometimes orchestrated torture to a degree that it became the norm — with which they were expected to comply," Lifton wrote. "Even without directly participating in the abuse, doctors may have become socialized to an environment of torture and by virtue of their medical authority helped sustain it."

Worse still, he wrote, is that "the participation of doctors can confer an aura of legitimacy and can even create an illusion of therapy and healing."

A 1991 review of torture by medical professionals in the Journal of Medical Ethics came to a similar conclusion. "Individual factors may have been of importance for motivation," the authors write, "but far more important seems to have been the organisation of the system."

In a book released in October, New York Times reporter James Risen said that the American Psychological Association worked with the Bush administration for years to provide cover for its torture methods. In 2015, the association released an official statement condemning the enhanced interrogation techniques and saying they were "independently reviewing" Risen's allegations.
Do brutal techniques help the CIA get information?

The Senate report firmly concluded that the abusive techniques outlined in the report did not help the CIA obtain reliable information, citing that out of 119 prisoners who were tortured, 26 were wrongfully detained.

Mitchell himself suggested in an interview with Vice News that the way the program was being applied meant that no intelligence came directly from the interrogation techniques themselves, but instead from a sort of game of "good cop, bad cop," that officials played with detainees.

"I would be stunned if they found any kind of evidence that would suggest that Enhanced Interrogation Techniques as they were being applied yielded actionable intelligence," Mitchell said in a video interview in 2014.


https://www.businessinsider.com/cia-interrogation-torture-program-lawsuit-psychologists-2017-6

- - - Updated - - -

11 Popular Songs the CIA Used to Torture Prisoners in the War on Terror

By Tom Barnes
April 22, 2014

Imagine you are chained with your hands between your legs, crouching. You're isolated in a small, dark room with earphones you can't take off. Queen's "We Are the Champions" has been playing on repeat for 30 hours now at full volume, and you've lost your ability to think. It could go on for months.

Music torture has been common practice for the CIA ever since it began its "enhanced interrogation program" in the early 2000s. The process is designed to "create fear, disorient … and prolong capture shock" in prisoners.

Sgt. Mark Hadsell, a member of the U.S. Psychological Operations team, described the efficacy of the tactic: "If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them."

Any torture method is of debatable merit — music torture was, in part, popular because it seemed more palatable to the public. But to hear about the experience of people who've been subjected to these songs is to see just how terrible it is to have a beloved song turned against you.

Here are 11 songs that have been turned into torture devices.



1. "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem

Binyam Mohamed suffered Eminem's "Slim Shady" for 20 days.

"I heard this nonstop over and over," he reportedly told Clive Stafford Smith, his lawyer and the founder and director of Reprieve, a U.K-based organization determined to end music torture practices. "The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds."

Mohamed said he could hear others in the prison "screaming and smashing their heads against walls."
2. “Take Your Best Shot” by Dope

British citizen Ruhal Ahmed described the process in a 2008 interview with Reprieve investigators: "I can bear being beaten up, it's not a problem. Once you accept that you're going to go into the interrogation room and be beaten up, it's fine. You can prepare yourself mentally. But when you're being psychologically tortured, you can't."

He said he had been exposed to the torture "numerous times" to a variety of music. "It makes you feel like you are going mad. You lose the plot, and it's very scary to think that you might go crazy because of all the music, because of the loud noise and because after a while you don't hear the lyrics at all, all you hear is heavy banging."
3. "Dirrty" by Christina Aguilera

Mohammed al Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker of the 9/11 attacks, reportedly received this torture as part of a much larger "musical theme" set up for him. The soldiers dubbed the "bad Muslim" theme.

The continuous cacophony of Aguilera's sexually charged pop anthem was one of several practices meant to make it impossible for him to be an observant Muslim man. Many inmates suffered humiliations like this: Female military personnel would go shirtless during interrogations, give forced lap dances and rub red liquids they identified as menstrual blood on detainees.
4. "Zikrayati (My Memories)" by Mohamed el-Qasabgi

As part of the "bad Muslim" theme, interrogators sometimes used more familiar music, hoping to exploit Muslim cultural taboos and guilt involved with enjoying music on certain ascetic holy days.

Interrogators played Arabic music for al Qatani on the first day of Ramadan on Dec. 7, 2002. Hearing the familiar instruments, he cried out "that it was a violation of Islam law to listen to Arabic music."

This actually isn't Quaranic law; it is more of a cultural precept. Investigators warned al Qatani that it was a sin "to add prohibitions not mentioned in the Qur'an (as he seemed to be doing)."

Al Qatani still insisted "music was forbidden" and broke down stating "he could do nothing about the music that was played in the [interrogation] booth."
5. "Babylon" by David Gray

Military personnel apparently used Gray's soft rock ballad in their tortures because of the biblical connotations of its title. While interviewing former prisoners, German musicologist Christian Gruny played this song for a Guantanamo inmate, who immediately burst into uncontrollable sobs.

Building off Gruny's research, Suzanne Cusick elaborates that music torture operates by stripping a prisoner of a safe, "interior space." It invades with the sounds and cultural expressions of one's captor and leaves a prisoners with nowhere to hide to "escape the pain."

This is the reason why U.S. soldiers used a lot of patriotic music like Neil Diamond's "America" or Don McLean's "American Pie."
6. "I Love You" by The Barney Theme

This one is especially sick. It's reportedly the most "overused" torture song in the CIA's arsenal.

Apparently, the song's creator Bob Singleton "just laughed" when he heard of its use: "It seemed so ludicrous that something totally innocuous for children could threaten the mental state of an adult. I would rate the annoyance factor to be about equal with hearing my neighbour's leaf blower. It can set my teeth on edge, but it won't break me down and make me confess to crimes against humanity."

Granted, he's never heard it blasted at ear-splitting volumes for weeks at a time.
7. "Saturday Night Fever" by the Bee Gees

Pakistani-Englishman Moazzam Begg, arrested by the CIA in Pakistan in 2002, wrote one of the most comprehensive memoirs describing the tortures he witnessed in the U.S. military prison system. During his stay at Bagram, Afghanistan, he suffered the Bee Gees.

He thought it was a joke at first: "Once they even played the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack all night long. 'Hardly,' I thought,'‘enough to break anyone I knew.' ... 'We'll talk. We'll all talk,' I said in half jest when they played it, 'just turn that crap off please!'"

But as the torture began to stretch on, it became unbearable. "It was terrible, there was no light at all, it was so tight, so hot, sitting in there. You can't see or do anything, nothing to see, nobody to talk to, nothing to do but bang the walls. And then to have the music blasting ... I met several people who'd been in there ... [who were] ready to tell the Americans anything they wanted, whether it was true or not."
8. The Meow Mix theme

The whole idea behind music torture is to create a method of torture that does not seem offensive to the public.

The above "Saturday Night Fever" is some of this "publicly palatable" music. Investigative reporter Justine Sharrock also singles out the Meow Mix theme song: "You almost have to stop yourself from laughing because you realize this is actually torture." After a particularly long heavy metal session the sudden shift in dynamics this song heralds can be especially maddening.
9. “The Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson

Begg, the man who was forced to listen to disco, said he was not as unnerved by the music torture as others. The men who suffered most were those coming from more rural parts of Afghanistan and Yemen, who had never been exposed to Western music before. They received the most horrifying introduction imaginable.

The worst part of the whole ordeal for Begg was the sleep disruption. "Sometimes it would stop at 3 a.m. or so, but your ability to sleep was already disturbed. You lose the ability to have a routine sleep. ... The other thing that they did was play the music at various times ... the random aspect of when it would start or end was frustrating, makes you tired, agitated, upset, on top of all the other situations of not knowing when you're going to be released, interrogated, or moved to those cells.

"Many people suffered from various kinds of anxiety attacks. People hyperventilated, losing control of their senses, hitting their bottle of water against the cell, against other people, trying to scrape their hands against the concertina wire, sometimes breaking down and crying."
10. "F#ck Your God" by Deicide

Music torture often had significant effects on U.S. military personnel as well.

Tony Lagouranis, a former U.S. Army interpreter, almost lost it one day while interrogating a prisoner who had been receiving some very heavy metal: "As Umar knelt, we took turns yelling our questions into his ears. His head twisted around as he tried to figure out where we were. After about a half hour, he started moaning. I imagined he was crying behind his sandbag. We pushed forward, getting harsher with our words. My throat was sore, my ears were ringing, and the lights were disorienting. I realized I wasn't going to be able to stand this much longer.

"The music and the lights were making me increasingly more aggressive. The prisoner, still not cooperating, was making me increasingly angry."

Another night: "Khalid was right where I left him, calm and serene. When I looked at him, the anger surged, amplified by the flashing lights and the booming noise. A thought flashed through my head: 'Chop his ----ing fingers off.'" Lagoruias was immediately revolted that the thought had even suggested itself. He left Khalid's fingers whole.
11. “We Are the Champions” by Queen

U.S. Navy veteran Donald Vance suffered this torture after the U.S. Army raided the Iraqi security firm he had been investigating as an unpaid FBI informant.

When all the employees were rounded up, he was treated as a suspect, taken to an unofficial prison camp and tortured with song.

Vance would catch himself singing along to songs he liked. "I can't remember how many times I heard Queen's "We Are the Champions.'"

Vance survived due to his military training. He started to talk to himself, telling himself jokes, trying to keep a rational train of thought going. He knew if he let the music completely "mask his thoughts," he would never get his mind back again. This method is likely what helped Vance emerge from this prison a "damaged" but not "broken" man.

https://m.mic.com/articles/87851/11...sed-to-torture-prisoners-in-the-war-on-terror

- - - Updated - - -

 
Salaam

Another update

Children of Guantanamo

IMG3-1.jpg


Children of Guantanamo: An exhibition of drawings, letters and soundscapes by the children of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay. This exhibition explores their experiences and how they have captured meaning from the indefinite captivity of their fathers. Children of Guantanamo focuses, for the first time, on the children whose voices are not heard in discussions on Guantanamo Bay.

For 16 years, while men have been detained at Guantanamo Bay, their children have grown in a world of uncertainty –never knowing if they can speak to their fathers or knowing if they will see them again. A number of these children were born after their fathers were captured, and in some cases despite a seventeen-year absence, have never met them. The fathers and their children communicate through letters and drawings that have to go through several layers of security checks before reaching their loved ones. Often, parts of the letter or drawing have been redacted with no explanation.

The drawings and letters in this exhibition are displayed anonymously. This is to protect the identities of the children and their families. This exhibition intends to spur discussion and thought about the children who are bound together by their common experience of having their fathers in captivity in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. This exhibition is not about their fathers, and it is not about the specificities of each father’s case. Children of Guantanamo is about the children who have been affected as a result of incarceration in the so-called War on Terror, as well as presenting an opportunity for all of us to consider the wider impact of indefinite detention.

Children of Guantanamo is the result of a collaborative effort between the John Adams Project of the ACLU and Postprint Magazine. The exhibition was curated by Charles Shields and Luz Damian. Special thanks to Angelina Dreem and Marium Begg.

https://www.childrenofguantanamo.com/about-2
 
Salaam

Another update.



Blurb

Episode 6 of our podcast 'Declassfied'. Here Moazzam Begg and I discuss his experience in the US Guantanamo prison, his torture experiences, his faith shaking moments, his faith building moments and more.

 
السلام عليكم


Support the families of our imprisoned brothers & sisters.

https://www.hhugs.org.uk/


"... Helping Households Under Great Stress (HHUGS) is a UK registered charity that exists to provide financial, emotional, and practical support and advice to Muslim households impacted by counter-terrorism, national security and extremism-related laws, policies and procedures, in the UK and abroad.

Since 11 September 2001, 2,710 families have been impacted by a terrorism related arrest in the UK, of which 54% result in the detainee being released without charge. Some have never been never prosecuted for any specific criminal offence but are instead detained without charge or subjected to Terrorism Preventative Investigative Measures (T-PIMs), a regime under which suspects are placed under house arrest and have severe restrictions placed on their freedom of association, movement and ability to communicate with others, despite the fact they have not been charged.

For every arrest and detention, a home has been raided and ravaged and a family has suffered the loss of a loved one, a bread winner, a dear husband. a much loved son. These are homes where life will never be the same.

For many of these families, ordinary daily tasks become increasingly difficult as they struggle to make ends meet and maintain physical contact with their loved ones, often imprisoned hundreds of miles away. Moreover, due to the nature of the crimes for which their loved ones are accused, these families find themselves ostracized and marginalized from both the religious and ethnic communities that they belong to as well as the wider society. They are lonely, vulnerable, and desperate for help.

Our mission is to banish the ‘guilty by association’ label experienced by the wives and children of terror suspects. We believe that they should not be penalized and discriminated against on the basis that their loved ones are accused of involvement in criminal activity.

We strive to bring relief and support to households devastated by anti-terror raids by offering friendship in addition to emotional, financial, and practical support, advice and information through a country-wide network of dedicated volunteers.

Most importantly, we aim to empower these vulnerable women and children so that they develop the necessary skills and confidence to not only support themselves but to also become part of a support network for others in similar difficulties. The aim of our work with prisoners’ families is to help them achieve the outcomes below...."

https://www.hhugs.org.uk/about-us/

- Caplets
 
Last edited:
السلام عليكم




A Call To Justice
​







The wife of a detainee rings in to speak to the shaykh:

"...My husband is detained since 9 years, and , here i want to ask the shaykh in Allâh's name and you are now in front of millions. I ask you to say the truth in front of Allâh , subhânhoo wa ta'âlâ, and, clear yourself in front of Allâh 'azza wa jall..."


The shaykh explains some of the rights due to prisoners - how they should be held, treated etc. He goes on to say:

"... and one of the most extreme sanctities is detaining and keeping a father or mother from their sons and especially in prisons. Keeping the person away from his people without clear judgment. This case that this woman is talking about, which is the presence of detainees unfortunately - regrettably for a long time with no Islamic ruling. No doubt this is oppression, and, she asked me in the name of Allâh, 'azza wa jall, about his judgment. I say, that i make Allâh my witness and His angels and the people - that this is one kind of oppression and we fear punishment on the country and the people in charge and scholars if they keep silent..."


Clip length 10:58 mins.
 
Last edited:

Similar Threads

Back
Top