No Money for Healthcare. BUT: National Guard intelligence analysts fuse to metro police departments

[annm4peace]

Both Hennepin County (minneapolis), and Ramsey county (St Paul) Sheriff Depts received Millions in riot equipment from the GOP for the Republican Convention in 2008.

But that only made them more greedy..and increased their appetite to spy on their own citizens.


Sheriff Stanek landing Fed cash for KingFish military cellphone tracker in Hennepin County; National Guard intelligence analysts fuse to metro police departments; Lobby for warrantless wiretaps in St. Paul

http://twincities.indymedia.org/2010/mar/sheriff-stanek-landing-fed-cash-kingfish-military-cellphone-tracker-hennepin-county-nationa

Also a couple proposals including the "Kelsey Smith" bill (HF2639/SF2470) are going through the Legislature to let the police instantaneously locate cell phones without warrants, under the excuse of abduction emergencies, although this bill's language is frighteningly unrestricted. The Strib says Kip Carver from Stanek's office also pitched KingFish as a tool to help with abductions. However, law enforcement is lurking in the wings at the State Capitol, trying to get warrantless intercepts of voice/data, not just the phone locations, added to HF2639. Naturally they want to try to sneak it in as an amendment, rather than a separate bill.


Metro area police departments have National Guard officers in the "police intelligence" mix now... More things secretly pushed in Minnesota Security State 2010, below the fold weird details, including notes on Stanek's agenda to kick Kitten off Facebook.
Last December the Minneapolis Police Department gave Minnesota National Guard Sergeant First Class Nicole Hughes an award at a ceremony attended by National Guard brass in fatigues. MNG and Minneapolis Police Chief Dolan claimed Hughes' work in I2 or Identity Intelligence software was made legal under a special annual declaration signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. More below


The Stanek Agenda

We heard Stanek said the Feds told him he can't talk about KingFish, even though the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension already has one. Why should any state official, in particular a Sheriff, be taking orders from the Feds? Especially about deployment of military-grade cell phone tracking technology here in Minnesota! While searching KingFish system by Harris Wireless Products Group or Harris Corporation turns up very little on the Internet, a US Army Intelligence command posted notice of "sole source" contracting of the KingFish Harris system. It must really be a field-clearing, top of the line cell phone tracking system; according to the contract spec it works on CDMA and 3G systems; we wonder if the secret Fed-Stanek Kingfish grant includes cool training sessions like the Army contract has. (Well-connected Harris made $165 million in Iraq and Afghanistan war cash during just 2002-July 2004)

One other happy operator of Harris KingFish? According to Maricopa County Arizona Board of Supervisor minutes, none other than the offices of controversial Sheriff Joseph "Joe" Arpaio, via High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Fed cash. Those minutes, posted below, describe its apparent use against drug traffickers.

snip....

Interestingly the extension of the Minnesota National Guard into the area of policing is part of a growing trend of militarization in the United States, as the military-industrial corporations have gorged on billions of dollars, reselling technology developed for wars now repurposed to control the American public. The National Guard claimed at least eight intelligence officials were working in the metro police departments, essentially a "live exercise" for the erosion of civil society. This is under the auspices of the Minnesota National Guard Counterdrug Task Force ( http://www.minnesotanationalguard.org/counterdrug/ ), a state implementation of a nationwide National Guard program ( http://ngbcounterdrug.ng.mil/Pages/Default.aspx ).

The MN-NG entering Minnesota police forces is exactly the pattern described in "Police Intelligence Operations", a seriously disturbing study written by a bunch of contractors, including John Towery, an SAIC contractor working with a Washington state fusion center and local military intelligence unit. Get it here:
http://tc.indymedia.org/files/g20/us-army-conops-police-2009.pdf


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With limitless debt financing available for the homeland security / "lawful interception" industry to hawk its wares, local government officials without recourse to infinite funds must turn down expanding tracking tech like KingFish into Hennepin County. But the Fed is there to push the tech, and the Federal Reserve Bank is there to synthesize the money.

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and the link at the tops takes you to the documents mentioned in the article.

[annm4peace]

1. do you believe in your Sheriff?