Sonic Warfare Erupts in Pittsburgh, Honduras

[Joanne98]

Police in Pittsburgh are using sound blasters and other non-lethal weaponry to ward off protesters at the G-20 summit. The sonic weapon is the LRAD or Long Range Acoustic Device, a super loud-hailer deployed by U.S. forces and famously used to fight off pirates.

According to the Guardian, LRAD is being used in two ways: as a megaphone to order protesters to disperse, and, when they disobey, as an “ear-splitting siren” to drive them away. This has happened repeatedly, with the crowd assembling again a few streets away. It’s one of a number of controversial tactics being employed in the city; check out this video of a seeming “snatch-and-grab” arrest in the middle of a demonstration.

The sonic weaponry appears to be having a much greater effect thousands of miles from Pittsburgh, in Honduras.

A siege situation has developed in the capital Tegucigalpa, where ousted President Manuel Zelaya is holed up in the Brazilian Embassy. The security forces can’t launch an assault, but they are stepping up the pressure with sound blasters and psychological warfare tactics.

Forced into exile in a coup three months ago, Zelaya sneaked back into the country on Monday. He gave speeches to crowds of supporters from an embassy balcony, calling for a peaceful solution to the current crisis. Recognizing the risk of a popular response, the coup leaders sent in security forces to clear the area using tear gas and water cannon. According to the Guardian, twenty people were injured and at least 170 detained following the disturbance; the BBC say that at least one person died.

The embassy is now surrounded. Water, electricity and telephone lines have been cut off. Embassy staff were permitted to leave, but access is now restricted. According to the BBC the embassy occupants have no soap, towels or fresh clothes and are surviving on biscuits. These are fairly routine methods of making the subjects of a siege feel isolated and uncomfortable, but an added dimension has been added by the use of noise.

According to Reuters, a truck-mounted speaker was used “to blast the embassy with harsh sounds.” The Guardian describes the speakers as being used to generate “high-pitched noise.” The Miami Herald cites witness reports that “soldiers used a device that looked like a large satellite dish to emit a loud shrill noise.”

The device seems to have spooked Zelaya; in the Herald report, he claims that he is under attack by some sort of radiation weapon. This reminds me of someone I talked to who once told some protesters that the LRAD sonic blaster emitted radiation that would shrivel their testicles. He was impressed at how fast they got out of the way.

The Herald quotes a police spokesman as saying that no such device is in use: “The only elements surrounding that embassy are police and military, and they have no such apparatus.”

Continued>>>Video at link

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/09/sonic-warfare-erupts-in-pittsburgh-honduras/

[TheMightyFavog]

1. Can't this weapon be defeated with a pair of 29-cent earplugs?

Like the ones you wear on a shooting range?

[Warpy]

3. It's still uncomfortable

but at least your hearing will be protected.

[T Wolf]

2. In the war against those defending the corporate system, the cops will ALWAYS have better

weaponry.

It is up to those aligned against them to use smarter tactics. Confronting the enemy at their strength is just plain stupid.

Much as the colonists learned to attack the British army regulars from hidden sites, those who are serious about battling the cops would do better by sniping from concealment.

Especially when fighting against weapons like this latest torture tool, open warfare is a losing proposition.

That is another reason why the "rioters" are probably NOT actual protesters but plants working for the cops.