OUR DAILY THREAD: Was Pretti On The List?
Target shooting
THE SET-UP: Was Alex Pretti targeted?
That’s one of the questions raised by a new CNN report on a previous encounter between Pretti and Trump’s deportation shocktroops that left Pretti with a broken rib. It also might’ve put Pretti on the Feds’ radar:
Federal immigration officers have been collecting personal information about protesters and agitators in Minneapolis, sources told CNN – and had documented details about Alex Pretti before he was shot to death on Saturday.
It is unclear how Pretti first came to the attention of federal authorities, but sources told CNN that about a week before his death, he suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was protesting their attempt to detain other individuals.
Of course, the Department of Homeland Security claims it “has no record of this incident.” Also of course, there is no reason to believe the Noem-led agency is telling the truth. To the contrary, there is every reason to assume it is lying.
Still, we are at the “if true” stage of the story … so, if true, the first question is whether or not someone in the the posse of incognito paramilitary enforcers that actively engaged with Pretti identified him from either a database or as an active participant in the incident that broke Pretti’s rib?
It certainly does seem there was a great deal of anger on the part of the anonymous federal paramilitaries … and, immediately after the first couple shots, one of the agents effusively clapped twice in what appeared to be a moment of “we got ‘em” celebration.
And if any this seems unlikely, CNN also reports something I’ve seen a half-dozen times in short videos taken by protesters when confronted with shocktroops:
A memo sent earlier this month to agents temporarily assigned to the city asked them to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” according to correspondence reviewed by CNN.
DHS did respond to that, saying it is “standard protocol”:
When our law enforcement encounter a violent agitator who is breaking the law, obstructing law enforcement or assaulting them, our law enforcement make records to advance prosecution.
But that’s what happens when a perp is arrested. Indeed, that’s always what happens when a perp is arrested. Always. Funny, though, that it didn’t happen after this:
The earlier incident started when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle, according to a source who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.
Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back – an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene.
We don’t have DHS’s side of the story because we don’t have an arrest report because he obviously wasn’t arrested. Are we to believe that Pretti was involved in an incident violent enough to cause a broken rib, but he wasn’t added to the masterlist of agitators and protestors outlined in the correspondence reviewed by CNN?
It certainly matches the various videos I’ve seen of shocktroops losing their cool when confronted with a whistling protester or obstructionist driver. Some shocktroops have taunted protesters, taking pictures of their faces or automobile license plates, telling them they’re “going on a list.” Again, here’s CNN:
Earlier this month, a DHS official in Minneapolis sent a memo to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations officers assigned to the state on temporary duty asking them to use a form to input information on protesters and agitators.
The form — titled “intel collection non-arrests” — allows agents to fill in personal information of agitators and protesters who they encounter. It’s not clear whether other agencies in Minnesota are also using the form.
Previously, agents had informally shared information about protesters and agitators with each other, the memo said.
Pretti’s name was known to federal agents, according to a source – though it’s unclear whether the new intake form was used to share his information.
DHS denies they’re compiling list … but … here’s Tom Homan on FOX News couple weeks ago:
“One thing I’m pushing for right now … we’re going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding and assault, we’re going to make them famous.”
And here’s a Federal agent taunting a Mainer after recording her license plate in a viral video from the last few days:
We have a nice little database and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.
If you start adding it all up with the “extreme vetting” of foreign students’ and now foreign travelers’ social media accounts … with Kash Patel’s and Pam Bondi’s snipe hunt for the vast leftwing conspiracy also known as “Antifa” … and with Trump’s repeated reference to “the enemy within,” CNN’s revelation seems more like a foregone conclusion. That’s particularly true now that the DOJ has finally admitted Elon Musk’s DOGE got access to Social Security data it shouldn’t have gotten access to … and, even more ominously, that the psychopath-led ghouls at Palantir were given access to Medicaid data so they could help ICE acquire deportation targets. Here’s Boing Boing’s summation of the the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s investigation:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deploying a Palantir-developed surveillance tool called ELITE — Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement — that pulls from Department of Health and Human Services databases, including Medicaid records, to build dossiers on potential deportation targets.
The tool creates maps populated with potential targets and generates “confidence scores” for each person’s current address. When EFF previously warned about government data consolidation into “a single searchable, AI-driven interface,” this is apparently what they meant.
The question is … who qualifies as a “potential deportation target?” Palantir will not know if someone is a “potential deportation target” until Palantir runs them through ELITE. Technically, then, Palantir needs access to every Medicaid record to make their determination … so … anyone using Medicaid is subject to the search. And if you think they are just going to ignore or discard what they find even if you have a Hispanic name, but you were born here to parents who were born here … I think you’d better think again. The same goes for anyone on Medicaid, regardless of surname. We are all data and, theoretically speaking, all potential threats and opportunities to perfect their systems.
After all, Palantir is in the surveillance business. And the AI business. And the kinetic targeting business … and, on that last matter, gleefully so. CEO Alex Karp is jazzed to be killing the enemies of America and Israel. He considers himself and his company to be guardians of Western Civilization. He’s not going to discard valuable data that might save “the West” … or, more likely, be useful to the people in power who sign the government checks his company rakes-in through the NatSec state. And ultimatly, perfecting its surveillance capabilities is just as important as the contractual payments they receive.
As WebProNews pointed out:
The reliance on Medicaid data is not an isolated tactic but part of a much broader strategy by ICE to amass as much data as possible from both government and private sources. A comprehensive investigation by the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, titled “American Dragnet,” revealed how ICE has effectively built a dragnet surveillance system by purchasing massive datasets from commercial data brokers like LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters. This data includes everything from utility records and credit headers to license plate reader information, allowing the agency to construct detailed profiles of most adults in the United States without a warrant.
Integrating CMS data into this already vast network through Palantir’s sophisticated software amplifies its power exponentially. Palantir’s platform excels at finding non-obvious relationships and patterns across dozens of datasets simultaneously. An agent isn’t just searching one database; they are querying an interconnected web of information where a name from a Medicaid record can be instantly cross-referenced with a last known address from a utility bill, a vehicle location from a license plate reader, and social connections from other law enforcement records. This creates a surveillance apparatus of unprecedented scale and efficiency, largely hidden from public and judicial oversight.
Maybe it’s a surveillance apparatus that’s keeping track of all those “radical left lunatics” in Blue States and Sanctuary Cities who have the gall to publicly object to the suspension of due process and to the de facto abrogation of the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 10th Amendments?
It certainly is aiding and abetting a violent campaign of intentional cruelty obviously designed to punish the president’s political “enemies” while, at the same time, instilling fear and trepidation in the hearts of anyone and everyone not born in the US.
Alex Pretti wasn’t afraid. Nor did he capitulate, even after he’d been body-slammed a week prior to his public execution. - jp
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