Musicians Mobilize To Close Guantanamo

Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo within a year of taking office. He has four months to go. Until then, dozens of musicians – including Rage Against the Machine, R.E.M., Trent Reznor, Pearl Jam, the Roots, and Rise Against – are demanding to know whether their music was played at ear-splitting volume in order to torture prisoners in a creepy "no touch" sort of way. It sounds like a joke, but James Hetfield of Metallica wasn't joking when he said, in a clip played on the The Colbert Report (see below), that he was "proud" his band's music was powerful enough to be so perversely abused. (Colbert, meanwhile, suggests the Bruce Springsteen's The River probably brings grown men to tears faster than anything else.)

New Security Action is mounting a strong effort to urge Congress to close Gitmo now. Only three Gitmo detainees have ever been prosecuted, and the place costs as much as $118 million per year to run. Many Republicans, including Congressman Peter King, who visited Gitmo earlier this year, want the facility kept open. According to King, "if there's any scandal at Guantánamo, it is that the detainees are treated too well."

New Security Action has been airing a commercial and would appreciate your signing their letter to Congress asking members to stand beside Obama, General Colin Powell, and General David Petraeus in closing the detention facility. (Or, even better, return it to Cuba.)