Purple Dinosaur stuns POWs; Iraqis told to "Put Down the Duckie"

US interrogators in Iraq have been exposing uncooperative prisoners to non-stop sessions of children's songs and "culturally offensive" music, in hopes of making them talk. According to the BBC, the US Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops) has employed everything from kiddie TV favorites Barney and Sesame Street to heavy metal rockers Metallica in their quest to deprive prisoners of sleep and otherwise break their resistance.

One Psy Ops leader told Newsweek magazine that "These people haven't heard heavy metal. They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them."

Another recalled his horrifying encounters with Barney during his own training. "They forced me to listen to the Barney 'I Love You' song for 45 minutes. I never want to go through that again."

This music-based interrogation technique, like sleep deprivation, is considered by the US military to be non-lethal and non-harmful, with no long-lasting effects. Human rights group Amnesty International is "seriously concerned," however, that extreme discomfort (even if music-related) or prolonged sleep deprivation may be forms of torture. US and UK officials maintain that they are treating prisoners under the terms of the Geneva Convention, and that they permit visits by members of the International Red Cross.

Read the BBC story (May 20, 2003)

Listen to a June 7, 2003 interview of Christopher Cerf by NPR's Linda Wertheimer. Cerf is co-editor of Iraq War Reader and has composed a number of songs for Sesame Street

Read Cerf's essay on this issue, with reader responses

Visit Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross

In a related story, Reuters reports that the US military has used music to boost its own spirits. In a bizarre example of life imitating art, Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries," immortalized in the Vietnam War movie "Apocalypse Now," was used as a blaring soundtrack as troops crashed into hundreds of homes in the Iraqi town of Ramadi. The troops were searching for gunmen responsible for continued attacks on the occupying forces. [However, there was no napalm to smell that morning.]