Sun, 15 Jun 2008

Stop US torture nowBinyam Mohamed is a British resident still held in Guantánamo. He came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 1994 and was granted indefinite leave to remain. He was seized in 2002 and has since been tortured, including with a razor blade taken to his genitals and with loud non stop music, by or on behalf of the US in Morocco, in Afghanistan and is currently in Guantánamo Bay on a hunger strike. With George W. Bush having tea with the Queen and dinner with Prime Minister Gordon Brown today, Reprieve, the legal action charity, that represents over 30 others Guantánamo prisoners organised a demonstration in Trafalgar Square to call for Brown to ask Bush to send Binyam back home to Kensington, London.

Binyam Mohamed testified:

'It was pitch black no lights on in the rooms for most of the time.... 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, [Eminem's] "Slim Shady" and Dr. Dre for 20 days....'

Clive Stafford-Smith, the legal director of Reprieve, suggested that musicians use copyright law to hold the American government to account for its use of music to torture detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo. I wrote more about this for El Reg in Fighting torture with copyright - Moral musos work to rule. Follow-ups by some readers included an investigation by Roger Parloff in the Legal Pad at CNN Money as to whether torture is fair use in the context of copyright law, and the suggestion by Guillaume Champeau on French site Ratiatum that maybe the US army should buy music labels if the use of music for torture is so essential to its modus operandi.

Barney not authorised Reprieve has launched the ‘Stop the torture’ initiative. Be sure to check out the list of artists and/or songs used for torture in Guantánamo, Iraq and secret prisons, and the call for action on the Stop the torture page. Mother Jones also published a ‘torture playlist’.

To dramatize the torture-by-music that Binyam and other prisoners have suffered, Reprieve invited today Barney the Purple Dinosaur as the theme tune to this popular children’s show has been one of the US torturers’ favourite pieces of torture music. Other guests were creative ‘cartoon characters’: Katy the Kangaroo Court, and Roger the Razor Blade. Cosmetics firm Lush, who have been supporting the work of Reprieve, brought along ‘Fair Trial My Arse’ orange underpants, to highlight the nature of the unjust process that Binyam is facing. (The US military once alleged that Reprieve smuggled contraband underpants in Guantánamo.)

In an interview with Democracy Now! earlier this year, Clive Stafford-Smith pointed out that as much as we may be shocked by what's going on at Guantánamo, it is just the tip of the iceberg:

And if you look at Guantánamo Bay, 270, roughly, as you mentioned, prisoners in Guantánamo, but according to the most recent official figures, the United States is currently holding 27,000 secret prisoners around the world. So that means that 99 percent of these folk are not in Guantánamo Bay.

Reprieve had organised a musical torture of its own for the afternoon when all demonstrators accompanied a band to the tune of Nick-Nack Paddywhack, the tune used in Barney's ‘I love you, you love me’ with the ‘Bring Byam Home’ song:

1. This poor man, in a cell,
Music is his living hell!
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

2. Rock and roll, children's song.
Bursting eardrums isn't wrong!
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

3. Laws for us, not for them,
Nameless people we condemn –
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

Fair trial pants Fair trial pants 4. Men in suits, men in ties,
Making them confess to lies –
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

5. You should sign, just say yes,
We won't make your face a mess –
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

6. We want men, take five grand,
Say he shook Osama's hand!
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

7. Don't much care, if it's true,
We've got Freedom's work to do –
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

8. Head in the hood, arms in chains,
Backs bent to increase the pain –
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

Floating Barney 9. Burning lights, tortured nights,
Just give them Iguana's Rights!
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

10. If we make, cowboy laws,
We're not good guys any more!
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

11. Mister Bush, Gordon Brown,
Time to close this torture town –
Razorblade, waterboard,
Cut him to the bone!
Gordon Brown, bring Binyam Home!

(Coincidentally, WMMNA published today a post on the Guantánamo museum and other tales of extraordinary rendition at Helga de Alvear gallery in Madrid, an exhibition on extraordinary rendition.)

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