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23 October 2009updated 27 Sep 2015 4:07am

Chimes of freedom

Musicians put pressure on Obama

By John Sunyer

Rock musicians including Billy Bragg and REM have supported a campaign demanding the closure of Guantanamo Bay and calling on the White House to release information about which songs were played at high volume during interrogation of prisoners at the detention centre. (Rosanne Cash, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Steve Earle, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt are also among the artists involved.)

Many of the musicians are angry that their work may have been used as a tool of interrogation and to inflict punishment on detainees. A Freedom of Information request has been placed by the US campaign group No More Guantanamos, and is backed by the British human rights organisation Reprieve, which has been campaigning against “music torture” for more than a year.

This latest news will undoubtedly put more pressure on President Obama to stick to his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay by 22 January 2010.

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