Musicians seek data on torture music

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Dozens of musicians have joined an effort to get information about music that may have been played to torture detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, activists said.

Musicians and bands including Pearl Jam, REM, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Rosanne Cash have endorsed a Freedom of Information request filed by the National Security Archive, a research organization based in Washington, asking for declassification of documents on the use of music at the Guantanamo detention camp be release, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The newspaper said music from "Sesame Street," Don McLean's "American Pie" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" may have blared over speakers for hours or days at a stretch either as punishment or to try to get detainees to talk to interrogators.

The artist coalition is demanding that the government divulge the names of all songs blasted at prisoners since 2002. Cash told the newspaper "every musician should be involved" in the protest against the use of music in torture.

"It seems so obvious," she said. "Music should never be used as torture."

A White House spokesman told the Post the United States no longer uses music as an instrument of torture. President Barack Obama has set up an interagency group that will examine interrogation techniques, the Post said.