CIA used Westlife song as torture technique, claims civil liberties group

By Joe Leogue

America’s Central Intelligence Agency used the music of Irish boyband Westlife to torture a man it was interrogating in Afghanistan, according to a civil liberties group that filed a law suit against the men who designed the CIA torture program.

Three former CIA prisoners represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, the two psychologists who designed and implemented the CIA’s torture program. One of the three former prisoners- Gul Rahman – died as a result of the torture he suffered.

In a statement issued this week, the ACLU said that the torture methods devised by Mitchell and Jessen and inflicted on the three men include slamming them into walls, stuffing them inside coffin-like boxes, exposing them to extreme temperatures and ear-splitting levels of music, starving them, inflicting various kinds of water torture, depriving them of sleep for days, and chaining them in stress positions designed for pain and to keep them awake for days on end.

The ACLU, which described some of the methods deployed by the CIA as "barbaric" filed an 82-page complaint against Mitchell and Jessen in federal court in Washington State.

The court documents outline how Tanzanian citizen Suleiman Abdullah Salim, one of the plantiffs in the case, was captured in Somalia, where he was working as a fisherman and trader, and rendered him to Kenya. From there he was brought to a CIA prison in Afghanistan, where he would spend five weeks. He arrived at the facility “shackled, handcuffed, blindfolded, and in headphones”.

“After his headphones, hood, and earplugs were removed, he was overwhelmed by ear-splitting noise: loud western pop-music sometimes interrupted by a mixture of cacophonous sounds like yowling and the clanging of bells,” the complaint filed on Tuesday read.

While the court documents do not specifically reference the music played, the ACLU revealed on its website that the CIA played Westlife to torture Mr Salim.

“The CIA used the music of an Irish boyband called Westlife to torture Suleiman Abdullah in Afghanistan,” the ACLU wrote on its site.

“His interrogators would intersperse a syrupy song called "My Love" with heavy metal, played on repeat at ear-splitting volume,” it said.

He was later handed over to the US military, which released him in 2008 - over five years after his abduction. Salim was issued with a letter acknowledging that he poses no threat to the United States. He now lives in Zanzibar with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

“The terrible torture I suffered at the hands of the CIA still haunts me. I still have flashbacks, but I’ve learned to deal with them with a psychologist who tries to help people, not hurt them.” said Salim.

“Mitchell and Jessen conspired with the CIA to torture these three men and many others,” said Steven Watt, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program.

“They claimed that their program was scientifically based, safe, and proven, when in fact it was none of those things. The program was unlawful and its methods barbaric. Psychology is a healing profession, but Mitchell and Jessen violated the ethical code of ‘do no harm’ in some of the most abhorrent ways imaginable.”

‘My Love’ was released in October 2000 and was Westlife’s seventh UK number 1.