访谈录 2008-12-20&12-22 音乐酷刑

（单词翻译）

"It is torture. I have no doubt about it in my mind. It is torture."

Donald Vance was a detainee in the US military's Camp Cropper in Iraq, held for months after he reported evidence of corruption¹. Vance says he was forced to listen to earsplitting music for months on end and it nearly drove him to suicide. Detainees, some US officials and human rights groups say U.S. forces have systematically² used loud music against hundreds of detainees in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq.

"You can hear them screaming. You can hear them crying out loud. They are usually calling out for their mothers or calling out for God to help them. And, yeah, you can, you could hear someone going insane."

Like they’d keep’em up all night long by blasting out music, we're trying our best to stop it.

In a campaign being launched on International Human Rights Day, Reprieve³, a legal group representing some Guantanamo detainees, along with musicians are protesting the use of music during interrogations. Not all of the music in question is hard rock either.

~~Put down the duckie

Put down the duckie

Put down the duckie

Yeah, you gotta leave the duck alone...~~~

Christopher Cerf, a songwriter for Sesame Street was horrified⁴ to learn that songs he penned for children's TV shows were used in interrogation.

"Humorously I made the point that I was willing to sacrifice those, those royalties⁵ for my country. But this is not the way I want my songs used."

Reprieve zero DB for Zero Decibel⁶ campaign calls for the enforcement of UN Convention Against Torture and encourages musicians to hold a minute of silence at concerts. One interrogator⁷ at Guantanamo bragged⁸ that he needed only four days to “break” someone using music and lights. Ruhal Ahmed, a British citizen who was captured in Afghanistan told Reprieve it was much worse when the music started.

It makes you feel like you are going mad. After a while, you don’t hear the lyrics⁹. All you hear is heavy, heavy banging.

A Guantanamo Bay spokeswoman wouldn't give details of when and how music has been used at the prison, and would also not respond when asked whether music might be used again in the future.

Tracy Brown, the Associated Press.

整理笔记：

earsplitting: loud and shrill¹⁰ enough to hurt the ears.

for months/days/weeks on end: if something happens or continues for days, months etc. on end, it continues for several days, months, or weeks without stopping.

royalty¹¹: a share paid to a writer or composer out of the proceeds resulting from the sale or performance of his or her work.