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Washington-The contents of a leaked classified report which lists interrogation methods used by the CIA has revealed that Red Hot Chili Peppers’ songs were played to terrorism suspects in a bid to extract information.
Two officials from the Senate Intelligence Committee have leaked the details of the classified report which allegedly shows that terrorism targets were secretly held and interrogated at Guantanamo Bay’s Camp Echo. The suspects at Camp Echo before being flown to Morocco and then back to Guantanamo.
A former interrogator told the Qatari broadcaster that the music used was songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Hits by the band include Californication and Can’t Stop.
Songs By the Way and Can’t Stop were both released in 2002 - the year Abu Zubayadah alleges he was held.
Suspects were also held at other ‘black sites’ including on US military base Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean as well as an alleged site in Poland.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that the methods, known as survival evasion resistance escape techniques (SERE), were an imitation of communist regime torture methods.
Techniques used included: sleep, food, water and medical deprivation as well as a ‘use of threats’.
The process aims to weaken the person’s ability to resist interrogation.
The SERE programme states that by isolating the captive, the person develops a ‘dependency’ on the interrogator. Violence was allegedly also used. But according to the sources, one man was subjected to all 10 interrogation techniques identified in an August 2002 Justice Department memo.
Zain Abidin Mohammed Husain Abu Zubaydah, the officials allede, was subjected to methods which went further than the prescribed guidelines.
Examples include keeping Abu Zubaydah awake for longer than the recommended 11 days and pouring cold water on his naked body to prevent him from sleeping. It is alleged that the suspect was then put into a cage used to detain animals at airports, before being subjected to loud music.
One interrogator told Al Jazeera: ‘Interrogators were being pressured - You have to get info from these people.’ Abu Zubayadah’s attorney said that he hoped that the report would back-up his client’s previous claims about the methods used during interrogation.