by Rigorous Intuition » Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:42 pm
From <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The Men Who Stare at Goats</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, an excerpt of Jon Ronson's conversation with former Gitmo detainee Jamal al-Harith (who was the <br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.notinourname.net/restrictions/gitmo-12mar04.htm">first</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> to reveal the use of prostitutes to sexually and irreligiously humiliate detainees):<br><br>A military intelligence officer brought a ghetto blaster into his room. He put it on the floor in the corner. He said, "Here's a great girl band doing Fleetwood Mac songs."<br><br> He didn't blast the CD at Jamal. This wasn't sleep-deprivation, and it wasn't an attempt to induce the <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://orbis-quintus.net/blog/?p=1501">Bucha Effect</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->. Instead, the agent simply put it on at normal volume.<br><br>"He put it on," said Jamal, "and he left."<br><br>"An all-girl Fleetwood Mac covers band?" I said.<br><br>"Yeah," said Jamal.<br><br>This sounded to me like the tip of a very strange iceberg.<br><br>"And what happened next?" I asked.<br><br>"When the CD was finished, he came back into the room and said, 'You might like this.' And he put on Kris Kristofferson's greatest hits. Normal volume. And he left the room again. And then, when that was finished, he came back and said, 'Here's a Matchbox Twenty CD.' "<br><br>"Was he doing it for entertainment purposes?" I asked.<br><br>"It's interrogation," said Jamal. "I don't think they were trying to entertain me."<br><br>"Matchbox Twenty?" I said. The only other occasion when I had heard of Matchbox Twenty was when Adam Piore from Newsweek told me that they too had been blasted into the shipping containers in al-Qaim.<br><br>I mentioned this to Jamal and he looked astonished.<br><br>"Matchbox Twenty?" he said.<br><br>"Their album More Than You Think You Are," I said.<br><br>There was silence.<br><br>"I thought they were just playing me a CD," said Jamal. "Just playing me a CD. See if I like music or not. Now I've heard this, I'm thinking there must have been something else going on. Now I'm thinking, why did they play that same CD to me as well? <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>They're playing this CD in Iraq and they're playing the same CD in Cuba. It means to me there is a program</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. They're not playing music because they think people like or dislike Matchbox Twenty more than other music. Or Kris Kristofferson more than other music. There is a reason. There's something else going on. Obviously I don't know what it is. But there must be some other intent."<br><br>"There must be," I said.<br><br>Jamal paused for a moment and then he said, "You don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes, do you? But you know it is deep. You know it is deep."<br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=rigorousintuition>Rigorous Intuition</A> at: 6/15/06 7:45 pm<br></i>
