The CIA 'used Westlife songs as a torture technique'

Don't tell Louis Walsh

21 March, 2018
The CIA 'used Westlife songs as a torture technique'

According to a lawsuit filed against the CIA by a civil liberties group, Westlife music was used to torture a man when America's Central Intelligence Agency was interrogating in Afghanistan. Oh someone get Louis Walsh an eye mask and try not to let him read on. 

Three former CIA prisoners, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have reportedly filed a lawsuit against James Mitchell and John Jessen - the two psychologists who designed and implemented the CIA's torture program.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ACLU said the torture methods the men devised, which eventually resulted in death of one of the former prisoners, included slamming them into walls, stuffing them inside coffin-like boxes, exposing them to extreme temperatures, staving them, depriving them of sleep for days, chaining them in stress positions and playing ear-splitting levels of music. 

The court documents go on to outline how one man, Suleiman Abdullah Salim, spent five weeks under imprisonment in a CIA prison in Afghanistan, where he arrived: "shackled, handcuffed, blindfolded and in headphones.

The document explained: 

"​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.​"

And whilst court reports do not specifically address the music played, the ACLU revealed on its website that the CIA tortured Mr Salim with Westlife songs.

"​The CIA used the music of an Irish boyband called Westlife to torture Suleiman Abdullah in Afghanistan. His interrogators would intersperse a syrupy song called "My Love" with heavy metal, played on repeat at ear-splitting volume​."

Horrific.

Credit: Cosmopolitan
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