Metallica Singer 'Proud' of Music's Role in Torture

Time for torturers to face the music, say celebs

(NEWSER) - A coalition of celebrity musicians is demanding the release of Bush administration documents revealing how music was used to torture Guantanamo Bay inmates. Songs from Metallica, The Real Slim Shady, and the Star Spangled Banner, among many others, were blasted all day for days on end to rattle prisoners, inmates have revealed. "The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," said Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine. "We need to end torture and close Guantanamo now." More»

(NEWSER) - Human rights groups may be upset that President Obama is classifying photos of detainee abuse, but former Army staff sergeant William Quinn thinks it’s a good thing—for the detainees’ sake. When Quinn was assigned as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib, he discovered that the detainees took a very different view of that prison’s photo scandal than Americans, he writes in the New York Times. More»

Operation's architects lacked training in conducting interrogations, say CIS records

(NEWSER) - Two US psychologists with no training in conducting interrogations boasted of earning $1000 a day designing and helping to implement use of waterboarding techniques on CIA detainees, reports ABC News. Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell, former military officers, are considered the architects of the interrogation operation that Barack Obama has labeled torture. More»

American officials step up action to empty secret prisons

(NEWSER) - The US has stepped up efforts to return foreign fighters captured in Iraq and Afghanistan to their homelands, the New York Times reports. More than 200 detainees have been turned over to security services in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries as the military works to empty its controversial secret prisons—and dodge continuing problems at Guantanamo Bay. More»

But it's not an endorsement, Dave Mustaine says

(NEWSER) - Rick Santorum and heavy metal—together at last? Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine took a look at the GOP field in an interview with Music Radar and picked Santorum over too-rich Mitt Romney, too out-there Ron Paul, and "angry little man" Newt Gingrich. Mustaine, who founded Megadeth after getting kicked out of Metallica in 1983 and became a born-again Christian a decade ago, praised Santorum's decision to leave the campaign trail to be with his sick daughter, and his lack of "horrible, horrible attack ads." More»