Thug Life Army

War brings enough pain and suffering on those involved in its destruction and hate, but imagine being forced to listen to Detroit hip-hop rap artist Eminem and a few others for 20 days straight; that is serious torture.

Hip-Hop and rap tracks by rappers Eminem and Dr. Dre were reportedly used to torture detainees at a U.S. prison in Kabul, Afghanistan according to activists for the human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW).

There are allegations that the United States locked detained prisoners in dark cells and at a high volume made the prisoners listen to hip-hop, rap and rock tracks from Eminem and others in a move to ‘break them’.

According to a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) several released detainees and former prisoners have similar accounts of the breaches of international human rights conditions in this prison.

A British detainee, Benyam Mohammed, told the HRW through his lawyer, "They hung me up. I was allowed a few hours of sleep on the second day, then hung up again, this time for two days. My legs had swollen. My wrists and hands had gone numb... There was loud music, Slim Shady (Eminem) and Dr Dre for 20 days.”

"The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) worked on people, including me, day and night. Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off."

Eight detainees now held at Guantánamo, Cuba described to their attorneys how they were held at a facility near Kabul at various times between 2002 and 2004. The detainees, who called the facility the “dark prison” or “prison of darkness,” said they were chained to walls, deprived of food and drinking water, and kept in total darkness with loud rap, heavy metal music, or other sounds blared for weeks at a time.

Human Rights Watch has long called for a special prosecutor to investigate alleged mistreatment of detainees in U.S. detention facilities abroad. 

“We’re not talking about torture in the abstract, but the real thing,” said Sifton. “U.S. personnel and officials may be criminally liable, and a special prosecutor is needed to investigate.” 

Human Rights Watch called on the United States to move “disappeared” persons into known detention facilities, articulate the legal basis under which detainees are held, and allow access to all detainees by independent monitors. 

“It’s time for the Bush administration to shut the secret prisons and stop holding people illegally,” said Sifton. 

For more on Human Rights Watch and this article visit their web site at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/19/afghan12319.htm