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14th Oct 2015

“It probably only took 2 hours to crack him…” Kian Egan on allegations that CIA used Westlife song as torture method

Questionable comments

Carl Kinsella

Not a time for jokes.

The American Civil Liberties Union is bringing a case against the CIA for its treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan, and one particularly strange detail has come to light as part of the proceedings.

The ACLU claim that the people held by the CIA were subject to various forms of illegal torture, including the repetition of Westlife’s song My Love interspersed with ”heavy metal, played on repeat at ear-splitting volume.”

Kian Egan went on The Eoghan McDermott Show to, as he put it, “shed a bit of light on the subject and have a bit of fun with it all.”

Asked by McDermott whether Westlife would be owed any money for the CIA’s use of their song, Egan laughed and mused that, “It probably only took two hours to crack the poor guy.”

McDermott then reminded Egan that the issue was “ultimately very serious,” before Egan, adopting a self-deprecating manner, reasoned that he could “understand why [Westlife] was used.”

https://twitter.com/EMcD2fm/status/654325135512571904

All of this seemed inappropriate given the seriousness of the subject matter.

Suleiman Abdullah (later found to be innocent of any possible charges), is a man from Tanzania who was allegedly subjected to the torture in question – we encourage you to watch the video below in order to better understand the context of what Suleiman and people like him went through.

Clip via The Guardian.

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Irish,Music