The Red Hot Chili Peppers have released songs called "Taste The Pain," "Knock Me Down," "Tell Me Baby," "Scar Tissue" and "Torture Me." But the band probably never imagined their music might used for actual torture.
Spin reports the Red Hot Chili Peppers' music was used by the CIA to torture an "imprisoned enemy combatant" during George W. Bush's term as President.
The news was revealed as part of the agency's forthcoming 6,600 page-report revealing its own "enhanced interrogation" procedures used following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted 11 to 3 to commence the declassification of the large report.
According to one anonymous interrogator who spoke to news outlet Al Jazeeera, terror suspect Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn Abu Zubaydah, was given shock treatment by listening to the band on a continuous loop. The detainee was handcuffed to the ceiling with the band's "music used to batter the detainee's senses." Al Jazeera reports the band's music was played during Abu Zubaydah's interrogations from May, 2002 to July, 2002.
Red Hot Chili Peppers have yet to comment on the revelation but aren't the first or only group to have their songs linked to torture. Earlier this year, we reported that besides Metallica's material used on detainees in Iraq, Canadian industrial group Skinny Puppy claimed their songs were used on detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
"We heard through a reliable grapevine that our music was being used in Guantanamo Bay prison camps to musically stun or torture people," band founder cEvin Key said in an interview with the Phoenix New Times. The band said their music was used at least four times.
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