The band said it has been advised about suing the government over the use of its music. Band seeks cash for Gitmo tunes

A Canadian rock band says it is demanding payment from the U.S. government after reports that its music was used in the interrogation of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison, but the Defense Department says it has no such request and doesn’t know how one would even be made.

The keyboardist of Skinny Puppy told Canada’s CTV that the band is sending an invoice of $666,000 to the U.S. military for using its music without permission at the naval base prison that houses detainees.


“We sent them an invoice for our musical services considering they had gone ahead and used our music without our knowledge and used it as an actual weapon against somebody,” cEvin Key told CTV, saying the band was “offended” toGuantanamo learn the music was being used.

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Key said his group learned about the use of its music at Guantanamo from a guard who was a fan of the band. Key also said he understands how his group’s music could be difficult to listen to.

While it’s “a terrible nightmare” for some, to others “it’s a creative artistic endeavor that plays with dark writings and dark cinema,” the musician said.

“I wouldn’t want to be subjected to any overly loud music for six to 12 hours at a time without a break,” Key said.

The band said it has been advised about potentially suing the government over the use of its music.

There have been reports in the past of music being used as a form of detainee torture. A leaked 2007 Red Cross report detailed playing loud music as one form of psychological “ill treatment” of detainees it observed at Guantanamo.

The Defense Department, however, said that it has not received any such invoice from Skinny Puppy and said it treats prisoners humanely.

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“The department is not in receipt of any sort of invoice as suggested by all the circular reporting on this topic in the press. I’m not even sure how, functionally, such a process of billing based on a hunch might work,” DoD spokesman Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale told POLITICO in an email. “To be sure, the United States is committed to ensuring that individuals detained in any armed conflict are treated humanely in all circumstances, consistent with U.S. treaty obligations, domestic law, and policy, whenever such individuals are in the custody or under the effective control of the U.S. government.”

Breasseale said “sensory deprivation” is not authorized by the Army Field Manual.

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