Mohammad Awan

Sudanese local media sources said that the U.S. envoy was forced to resign after he turned to Islam.
World Bulletin / News Desk

The US charge d’affaires in Khartoum, Joseph D Stafford, resigned from his post after he converted to Islam, Sudanese local media sources said. 
Stafford told the foreign ministry that his resignation was made for “personal reasons” but Sudanese sources claimed that the envoy was forced to resign after he turned to Islam. 
Sources said that Stafford has recorded visits to the headquarters of Ansar al-Sunnah in Sudan and established a close relationship with a number of Sudanese clerics through these visits.

The U.S. State Department has not made any statement to confirm or deny the news on Joseph Stafford.
After his resign, Stafford published an article in the Sudan Tribune and said, “My wife and I have been very fortunate to meet so many wonderful people throughout Sudan who share a strong desire and willingness to improve their communities. We will always remember you and your compelling country, and I know you will continue your hard work for a better life, just as you say daily ‘Fi Kulu Harakah Baraka’ (Arabic for ‘in every move there is a blessing’).”
The U.S. has not appointed an ambassador to its embassy in Khartoum since 1998 and has kept its representation there at charge d’affaires despite Sudan’s demand that it be upgraded.

US envoy in Sudan forced to resign after accepting Islam | Muslim World | Worldbulletin News

A Canadian electro-industrial band is asking for thousands of dollars in royalties after learning that the US military used their music to tortureprisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Skinny Puppy claim they filed a $666,000 (£368,000) bill with America’d defence department.

“We sent them an invoice for our musical services considering they had gone ahead and used our music without our knowledge and used it as an actual weapon against somebody,” keyboardist Cevin Key recentlytold CTV News. “I am not only against the fact they’re using our music to inflict damage on somebody else but they are doing it without anybody’s permission.”

Skinny Puppy first learned about the alleged use of their music from a former Guantánamo Bay guard, who was “affected or offended” by the detention camp’s practices. Although the Vancouver-born band originally planned to use their new album cover as an invoice to the Pentagon, they have now received “coaching” and apparently sent an actual physical document to government officials. They are even considering a lawsuit.

“We’re not making a point looking for financial gain,” Key underlined. But nor is the group entirely surprised that their songs were used as sonic punishment for Gitmo’s detainees: “We thought this would end up happening, in a weird way,” he admitted in an interview with the Phoenix New Times. “Because we make unsettling music, we can see it being used in a weird way. But it doesn’t sit right with us.”

Skinny Puppy aren’t the only group whose music has reportedly been used to torture terrorist suspects and “enemy combatants” at the United States‘ base in Cuba. According to earlier reports, interrogators have employed songs by Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Queen, Eminem, and even David Gray. “It’s an issue that no one wants to deal with,” Gray said in 2008. “It’s shocking that there isn’t more of an outcry.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/07/skinny-puppy-payment-guantanamo