According to the American Civil Liberties Union, two psychologists teamed up with the CIA to devise a torture program and experiment on human beings, and it was centred around a song by our boys.
Well, this is kind of unbelievable. Obviously, considering the headline, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a Waterford Whispers News story but alas, it bloody well happened.
Three former CIA prisoners represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against James Mitchell and John 'Bruce' Jessen, the two psychologists who designed and implemented the CIA’s torture program. One of the three former prisoners- Gul Rahman – died as a result of the torture he suffered.
And it has emerged that once of the primary forms of torture used by the psychologists was Westlife's absolute tune, 'My Love.'
The interrogators intertwined the mushy ballad with a heavy metal beat, playing the evil concoction on repeat at ear-splitting volume. They allegedly told Suleiman Abdullah, a newly-wed fisherman from Tanzania, that they were playing the love song 'especially for him.'
According to aclu.org, Suleiman had married his wife Magida only two weeks before the CIA and Kenyan agents abducted him in Somalia, where he had settled while fishing and trading around the Swahili Coast. He would never see Magida again.
With the whole new marriage back-story in mind, the song choice seems all the more callous.
aclu.org continue:
After four or five weeks of this relentless pain and suffering, Suleiman’s torturers assessed him as psychologically broken and incapable of resisting them. Suleiman could take no more. He decided to end his life by consuming painkillers he had stockpiled. But as he began to take the pills, guards stormed into his cell to stop him. He was then shackled, hooded, and driven a short distance to another CIA prison close by — a prison Suleiman came to know as the “Salt Pit.”
Although Suleiman’s torture would continue for many years more, the very worst of it was over.
While it's difficult not to find the whole Westlife angle extremely amusing, allow me to 'get real' for just a second; it's crucial not to ignore the inhumane, extraordinary suffering these people are forced to endure. It's 2015, for Christ's sake.
Some of Suleiman Abdullah's story is documented here, via The Guardian. Warning: not for the feint-hearted.
We'd imagine there'll be a lot more to follow.
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