The secret police: Cops built a shadowy surveillance machine in Minnesota after George Floyd’s murder

Retired Air Force Col. Gail Halvorsen, the “Candy Bomber” who brought joy to Berlin's children by dropping candy in tiny handkerchief parachutes from his plane when the Soviets blockaded the divided city during the Cold War, has died. He was 101.

R.I.P.:  ‘Candy Bomber’ of Berlin blockade, Gail Halvorsen, dies at 101.

Visualizing the Active Conflict Zone in Ukraine Center for Data Innovation – “The Economisthas created a visualization depicting changes to commercial flights through Ukrainian airspace after the EU Aviation Safety Agency labeled it an active conflict zone. The visualization shows the flight paths of planes over Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia on February 23rd and 24th. According to the visualization, pilots have avoided the airspace over Ukraine entirely since the 24th.”  Take a look.

The secret police: Cops built a shadowy surveillance machine in Minnesota after George Floyd’s murder “An investigation by MIT Technology Review reveals a sprawling, technologically sophisticated system in Minnesota designed for closely monitoring protesters. Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have been carrying out a secretive, long-running surveillance program targeting civil rights activists and journalists in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. 

Run under a consortium known as Operation Safety Net, the program was set up a year ago, ostensibly to maintain public order as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin went on trial for Floyd’s murder. But an investigation by MIT Technology Review reveals that the initiative expanded far beyond its publicly announced scope to include expansive use of tools to scour social media, track cell phones, and amass detailed images of people’s faces. Documents obtained via public records requests show that the operation persisted long after Chauvin’s trial concluded. 

What’s more, they show that police used the extensive investigative powers they’d been afforded under the operation to monitor individuals who weren’t suspected of any crime. MIT Technology Review’s investigation includes thousands of documents and more than two dozen interviews with Minnesota state employees, policing experts, and activists. 

Taken together, they paint a picture of a state operation intent on identifying participants through secretive surveillance operations. Though it was undertaken by nonmilitary governmental agencies using public funds, large swaths of its inner workings have gone undisclosed. We found evidence of a complex engine of surveillance tailor-made for keeping close tabs on protesters and sharing that information among local and federal agencies, regardless of whether the subjects were suspected of any wrongdoing…”

Ukrainian Front – strategy without tactics (MUST SEE) The Saker

A closer look at the volunteers who are signing up to fight the Russians NPR. Commentary:

The American Oversight nonprofit organization has published more than 10,000 sets of documents

“The American Oversight nonprofit organization has published more than 10,000 sets of documents amounting to more than a million pages of records, as well as the FOIA requests and responses that produced those records. They can be viewed and searched here: https://www.americanoversight.org/documents.  American Oversight is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog that uses public records requests backed by litigation to fight corruption, drive accountability, and defend democracy. We believe transparency is a critical tool to promote integrity in government and to protect justice, truth, and the rule of law. Since our launch in March 2017, we have obtained and published tens of thousands of documents from federal, state, and local government agencies. Records uncovered by American Oversight have supported congressional inquiries, investigative journalism, and independent actions by partner organizations — and our work has been featured in hundreds of news stories around the country. This site represents an unparalleled data resource which you can use for your news coverage, or just for poking around.”

Supreme Court: Torture at CIA Black Site Is ‘State Secret’ Consortium News. Discusses Gorsuch’s ‘scathing dissent’.FWIW, Neil was in my HLS ’91 class. And unlike many of our classmates, who frequently marched in lockstep with ideologically compatible faculty or fellow students, he sought me out after a seminar in which I’d taken on Charles Fried (solicitor general under Bush senior) to offer gracious support. I appreciated that gesture – needless to say, such behavior was rare at HLS. I’m pleased to see he continues to eschew groupthink.

 

2020 Census Undercounted Hispanic, Black and Native American Residents NYT. Oops!

How Millions of Lives Might Have Been Saved From Covid-19 Zeynep Tufecki, NYT

Covid has slipped from the headlines – but with restrictions eased, cases are rising Guardian

Cyberattack takes down Israeli government websites

It might be the largest digital attack against Israel to date.

Florida man asks police to test meth for authenticityNBC

Expecting the unexpected: Central bank decision making in turbulent times (PDF) Bank of International Settlements. How the Bank of Canada handled Covid.

Inside the 18 Minutes of Trading Chaos That Broke the Nickel Market Bloomberg

Barack Obama says he tested positive for COVID-19 CBS