New FBI slap at NYPD spying
The FBI is so opposed to the NYPD’s so-called Muslim
spying program that top brass have barred agents from dealing with cops from
the department’s intelligence division, according to explosive claims in a new
book.
The feds think the surveillance program is “a waste of
money” and an affront to constitutional rights.
The anonymous claims come in an updated edition of “The
Secrets of the FBI,” due out next week by best-selling investigative author
Ronald Kessler.
The NYPD’s exhaustive post-9/11 mapping and tracking of
Muslim communities in the city — and in other jurisdictions — came to light in
a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles by the Associated Press.
“What never came out is that the FBI considers the NYPD’s
intelligence gathering practices since 9/11 not only a waste of money but a
violation of Americans’ rights,” wrote Kessler, who in April broke news of
Colombian sexcapades by Secret Service agents doing advance work for President
Obama.
“We will not be a party to it,” an FBI source told
Kessler.
The NYPD has long denied any wrongdoing.
“There’s been a suggestion that what we are doing doesn’t
comport with legal requirements, and that’s not the case,” Paul Browne, the
NYPD’s chief spokesman said in February. “Everything we’re doing is done
constitutionally.”
Responding in March to a lawmaker’s question about
“overbroad and discriminatory efforts” by the NYPD, FBI Director Robert Mueller
was more complimentary than critical.
“Ray Kelly and the New York Police Department have done a
remarkable job in protecting New York,” Mueller said at the time. “And the fact
of the matter is New York has been and will continue to be a target. And we
have worked closely — very closely — together with them.”
The NYPD and FBI declined comment Tuesday.
A March Quinnipiac University poll found that 58% of New
Yorkers approve of the NYPD’s dealing with Muslims, and 82% approve of the
department’s counterterrorism efforts overall.
The White House added its stamp of approval a month later
when President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan visited police
headquarters.
“I have full confidence that the NYPD is doing things
consistent with the law, and it’s something that again has been responsible for
keeping this city safe over the past decade,” he said.
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