Bands Want To Know If Their Music Was Used On Gitmo Detainees

Bands want to know if their music was used on Gitmo detainees | CNN

A coalition of top musicians, including R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, want to know if their music was used by the U.S. military as part of controversial interrogation methods at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The artists have endorsed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, which were filed Thursday morning, asking the U.S. government to declassify documents that would reveal which artists' work was used on detainees at U.S. prison facilities and military detention centers, including the one at Guantanamo Bay.

The National Security Archive, a Washington-based independent research institute that advocates "for the right to know," filed the requests on behalf of the Close Gitmo Now campaign, which launched this week, the archive's senior analyst Kate Doyle said.

The multimillion-dollar national grassroots Close Gitmo Now campaign is aimed at pressuring members of Congress to support President Obama's endeavor to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. It is supported by a coalition of retired generals and liberal activists.

The requests are based on the testimony of former Guantanamo prisoners and guards, as well as declassified documents, that identified music from 35 artists -- ranging from AC/DC tunes to the theme from Sesame Street -- used in the interrogations of detainees, Doyle said. See a list of bands and songs involved (PDF). Read more.