Rock bands including Pearl Jam and REM have joined a coalition of musicians to support the US president's efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.This is why I disassociate politics -- as much as possible -- from the music and the musicians I enjoy.
The National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which also includes former military officers, launched on Tuesday.
Many of the artists who have signed up are angry that their music was used as an interrogation tool in the jail.
But CIA spokesman George Little said music was used only for security, rather than "punitive purposes".
In a statement, REM said: "We have spent the past 30 years supporting causes related to peace and justice. To now learn that some of our friends' music may have been used as part of the torture tactics without their consent or knowledge, is horrific. It's anti-American, period."
Other artists to sign up to the coalition include Jackson Browne, Steve Earle, Roseanne Cash, Billy Bragg, Bonnie Raitt and Rage Against The Machine.
REM is pretty cool. I'm just not so thrilled that they're joining up with folks like communist Zach De La Rocha to help gain the release of enemy combatants like Khalid Abdullah Mishal al Mutairi, a suspected fighter-terrorist captured at the AF-PAK border in 2001. He was released from Guantanamo and sent to Kuwait last week, on October 13. Khalid Abdullah was trained by Laskar-e-Taiba and fought against American and Northern Alliance forces during Operation Enduring Freedom. Should he gain release ultimately, no doubt he'll be joining back up with his Talaban-Lashkar-Al Qaeda homies in no time. Maybe he'll wear a shirt of violent green, uh-huh.
2 comments:
Its interesting that they define their own music as torture.
I'll say close Gitmo when these assholes offer to take the releasees on their tourbuses...
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