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‘Just a Friend’ by Biz Markie

(141 plays)

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‘Party’ by Beyoncé (feat. André 3000 and Kanye West)

(206 plays)

One of the reasons I named the band after [Beirut] was the fact that it’s seen a lot of conflict. It’s not a political position. I worried about that from the beginning. But it was such a catchy name. I mean, if things go down that are truly horrible, I’ll change it. But not now. It’s still a good analogy for my music. I haven’t been to Beirut, but I imagine it as this chic urban city surrounded by the ancient Muslim world. The place where things collide.

—Zach Condon on naming his band

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First the team needed to take control. Because Saddam was believed to speak some English, his guards were replaced by Puerto Rican National Guard troops who were told to talk only in Spanish. Saddam wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone but Piro. “Every interaction had to be controlled,” Piro says. “All of these things were imposed on him slowly, forcing him to ask me for things.”

Piro had every clock removed from Saddam’s view, then walked into the interrogations wearing the biggest watch he could find. “When you’re in prison, robbed of all sense of time, day or night, you’re desperate to know the time,” he says. “I wanted him to know that it was easy for me to know the time. For him, it was impossible. It was all about establishing dominance.”

—The interrogation of Saddam Hussein