Guantanamo concert has music to interrogate by

Few songs circulated on the playlists of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early years of the global war on terror more than Drowning Pool’s hard-rock “Bodies,” which consists mostly of the throaty, repeated lines of the main chorus: Let the bodies hit the floor.

Released in May 2001, “Bodies” was tailor-made for the headbanging rock crowd, and it quickly became a favorite of service members looking for what many call “moto” songs — short for motivation — that combine fast rhythms and vivid details of violence to amp up combat troops heading out on patrol.

Drowning Pool has gone on tour with the USO at least five times since 2005 to entertain troops, including in Iraq and Kuwait.

Last week, Drowning Pool played at Freedom Fest, an Independence Day concert for troops stationed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, home to the highprofile prison for terrorism detainees.

The song has a dark history in post-9/11 military history: It was used in at least one instance during harsh interrogation of Mohamedou Slahi, a detainee held at Guantanamo in 2003. An interrogator, identified only as Mr. X, exposed Slahi “to variable lighting patterns and rock music, to the tune of Drowning Pool’s ‘Let the Bodies Hit [the] Floor,’” according to a 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee probe on prisoner abuse at the facility that misstated the name of the song.

Slahi was freed after 14 years in October 2016 and returned to his native Mauritania without charges, the Miami Herald reported. He recently told the newspaper that his experience with music during his detention was “twisted on so many levels.”

“Music is supposed to make you happy and make you a better person; sometimes,” he told the Herald by email in response to questions about the July 4 concert and Drowning Pool’s involvement.

Slahi told the Herald it was “quite the coincidence” that the band, and their signature song, were on hand for the festivities at the naval station, which houses 1,500 troops.

U.S. Southern Command spokeswoman Col. Lisa Garcia said in an emailed statement: “It is likely that leadership was not informed of the potential for negative connotations because individuals were more familiar with the song “Let the bodies hit the floor” than the name of the band that performed it or its past history with detainees.” Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Final domestic figures will be released today. $117 million. $6.3 million. $5.6 million. $4.8 million. $3.7 million. $2.8 million. $2.1 million.