Torture, Rap Music Connect Allege Prison Abuse In Iraq, Cuba

Two British men who were detained at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, allege they were tortured and forced to listen to Eminem at deafening levels. Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal described their abuse in an open letter to George Bush released by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is providing […]

Two British men who were detained at the US prison

camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, allege they were tortured and forced to listen

to Eminem at deafening levels.

Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal described their abuse

in an open letter to George Bush released by the New York-based Center for Constitutional

Rights, which is providing legal counsel for the men.

The men say they were forced to squat with their

hands chained between their legs for hours, blinded with strobe lights and were

forced to listen to loud rap music, particularly Eminem, in an attempt to extract

information from the prisoners.

As early as last year, a

Lebanese man who was in Iraq on a pilgrimage to Islamic

holy sites and was mistakenly detained by U.S. troops, made the same accusations.

"They didn’t torture us physically, but

they did psychologically by raising the volume of rap music all day until it

became unbearable and by withholding food," Mohammed Jaber said in December

of 2003.”

These allegations come in the face of similar

accusations in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Pictures of naked prisoners in compromising

positions have prompted outcries from humanitarian organizations worldwide.

The men also claim Major General Geoffrey Miller,

who was in charge of the Guantanamo operation from November of 2002 until this

year, created new forms of torture, including "short-shackling," which

shackled a prisoner to a hook in the floor to limit movement.

Miller is now in charge of the prisons in Iraq,

where he has promised to reform the system.

Around 600 prisoners are still being held in

Guantanamo, on suspicion of having ties to the ousted Taliban regime or the

al-Qaida network.

None have been charged with crimes and have not

been allowed to see lawyers. Some have been held in the prison for over two

years.