Tag: guantanamo

On guard

A former Guantanamo Bay guard, Brandon Neely, joined Facebook and on a whim searched for some of the released detainees, leading to a remarkable exchange between them that is now the subject of a BBC doco. Pretty cool.

Mr Neely was 22 when he worked at the camp and left after six months to serve in Iraq. But after quitting the military his doubts about Guantanamo began to crystallise. This led to a spontaneous decision last year to reach out to his former prisoners.

“I was pretty new to Facebook and decided to type in their names to see if their profiles popped up and I came across Shafiq’s Facebook page. I decided to send him a little e-mail,” says Mr Neely.

You can read/watch what happened here.

January 16, 2010

Facing the music

If I was going to make a compilation of musical torture it would look nothing like this (now fairly old but suddenly “current”) list of bands that may or may not have been played to torture people who may or may not be terrorists held at Guantanamo.

A bunch of bands want to know if they have been in the metaphorical firing ~~line~~ squad, they’ve launched a Freedom of Information inquiry to find out if their music was played. I think Metallica have joined in just so they can be paid the appropriate royalties.

If I was an unheard of band I’d be joining the inquiry just to get my name in the news…

Except maybe “I Love You,” from the “Barney and Friends” children’s TV show.” I would just play that over and over again.

When I was a little younger I used to be a musical terrorist. I’d take $10 worth of coins into a pool hall that had one of those video clip jukeboxes and order $10 worth of really painful music (think Britney Spears and Aqua) and then leave.

What songs would you torture people with?

October 23, 2009