It has emerged that Pittsburgh police used an "audio cannon" dubbed the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), manufactured by the San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATCO), against protesters at the G-20 Summit—the first time the device has been used on civilians in the US. "Yes, we sold one LRAD unit to a government agency—I don't know which one—which was used in Pittsburgh," said an ATC sales representative. (Daily Finance, Sept. 25) The LRAD has also recently been used against protesters in Honduras.

The US Department of Justice announced Oct. 9 that Kuwaiti Guantánamo Bay detainee Khaled al-Mutairi has been returned to his home country. The US government alleged that al-Mutairi had fought against American troops in Afghanistan, but in his almost eight years at the facility, no charges were ever filed. Al-Mutairi maintains that he had traveled to Afghanistan to provide monetary support for schools. In his home country, al-Mutairi will participate in a rehabilitation program set up by the Kuwaiti government, designed to help former Guantánamo detainees recover and reintegrate into civilian life. The DoJ also announced that a second detainee, whose identity has not been released, was released to Belgium. Al-Mutairi's release leaves 222 detainees who must be dealt with before the Obama administration's goal of closing the facility can be realized.

Palestinian protesters, angry at Israeli-imposed restrictions on access to the al-Aqsa Mosque, clashed with police in Jerusalem Oct. 9—the latest in a series of confrontations in the past two weeks. At least four Palestinians were arrested—bringing the total to 75 for the week—and 11 Israeli police reported injured. The violence clouded the visit of White House envoy, George Mitchell, who met separately that day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. (WSJ, Oct. 10)

There is ironic timing to Barack Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. Hours after getting the nod from the Nobel committee, he convened his war council in the White House Situation Room for talks on his military strategy in Afghanistan. (AFP, Oct. 9) Gen. Stanley McChrystal, US commander in Afghanistan, has sent alternative proposals with requests for more troops ranging from 40,000 to 60,000. (WSJ, Oct. 9) Obama is said to have ruled out de-escalating the Afghan war to a counter-terrorism effort aimed at al-Qaeda rather than the Taliban. (AlJazeera, Oct. 7) Other reports indicate Obama is willing to consider a role for the Taliban in Afghan's security forces as the price of peace. (The Telegraph, Oct. 9)

An Oct. 7 New York Times story, "Leader Ousted, Honduras Hires U.S. Lobbyists," notes that "several former high-ranking officials who were responsible for setting United States policy in Central America in the 1980s and '90s" are re-emerging to mobilize support for the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti in Honduras. Three named are Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and Daniel W. Fisk. Reich is quoted saying in recent Congressional testimony: "The current battle for political control of Honduras is not only about that small nation. What happens in Honduras may one day be seen as either the high-water mark of Hugo Chávez's attempt to undermine democracy in this hemisphere or as a green light to the spread of Chavista authoritarianism."

It looks like we are in for a replay of the ugly flap that ensued following the anti-Semitic attacks in Venezuela earlier this year. The usual story: the conservative Jewish establishment makes charges against left-populist forces that may or may not check out; they are parroted without further corroboration by the mainstream media; they are summarily dismissed without further corroboration by left-wing commentators. Those of us who instinctively root for the left but cut no slack for Jew-baiting are left wondering what to believe. The below Oct. 4 report is from Ben Fox of the Associated Press, with our commentary and annotation interspersed:

As of Oct. 4 Hondurans' free speech and assembly rights remained suspended under a 45-day state of siege declared by de facto president Roberto Micheletti a week earlier. The general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS), Chilean diplomat José Miguel Insulza, was scheduled to visit Tegucigalpa on Oct. 7 with a delegation of about 10 foreign ministers to negotiate a resolution to the crisis that began more than 100 days earlier with a June 28 military coup against President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales. The deposed president has been staying in the Brazilian embassy since his surprise return to the country on Sept. 21. (Agence France Presse, Oct. 4)

Members of the independent Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) were guarding the Mexico City facilities of the state-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC) to make sure the federal government could not "throw the switch and blame the workers," union president Martín Esparza Flores said after a labor forum in the capital on Oct. 3. The union charged on Sept. 29 that President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa's center-right administration was contemplating a quasi-military occupation of the plants within a week on the pretext that the SME was planning to cause a blackout. The LFC provides power for the Federal District, and México, Morelos, Puebla and Hidalgo states.