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Heavy metal music and popular American children's songs are being used by US interrogators to break the will of their captives in Iraq. Uncooperative prisoners are being exposed for prolonged periods to tracks by rock group Metallica and music from children's TV programmes Sesame Street and Barney in the hope of making them talk. The US's Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops) said the aim was to break a prisoner's resistance through sleep deprivation and playing music that was culturally offensive to them. However, human rights organisation, Amnesty International, said such tactics may constitute torture - and coalition forces could be...

US interrogators in Baghdad are using a mix of heavy metal songs and the Sesame Street theme tune to break Iraqi captives. American officials said subjecting prisoners to long sessions of the "culturally offensive" music encourages them to talk. "These people haven't heard heavy metal before," Sergeant Mark Hadsell told Newsweek magazine. "They can't take it." The interrogators' favourite tracks include Metallica's Enter Sandman and the Drowning Pool song Bodies, from the Vin Diesel action film XXX. They also use children's music, such as the famous Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street theme, and a selection...