CIA, NYPD Team Up To Fight Terrorism, Civil Liberties

(Flickr User Vidiot)

It must be frustrating working at the CIA sometimes, what with all those stifling rules keeping you from spying on suspicious Americans. Thankfully, there's a solution for spooks with an itch to snoop domestically: Just shuffle on over to the NYPD, which has been working closely with the CIA since 2002, when veteran CIA division head David Cohen came out of retirement to run a secretive police intelligence team. In a thorough 5,000 word article, the AP reports that the division's counterterrorism tactics have gone further than what the FBI allows, and they're probably illegal.

For almost a decade, the NYPD has aggressively courted informants by targeting, for example, Pakistani cab drivers who may have broken some law completely unrelated to terrorism. NYPD officers will then persuade them to provide intelligence in exchange for letting them off the hook, and then they'll share this information to the CIA through backdoor channels. The NYPD also sends undercover officers known as "rakers" (so called because Cohen wanted the squad to "rake the coals, looking for hot spots") into ethnic and Muslim neighborhoods with instructions to act like "a human camera" and "map the human terrain" in mosques, hookah bars, and Internet cafes.

Justice Department guidelines prohibit federal law enforcement officers from considering race when making traffic stops or assigning patrols. "If you're sending an informant into a mosque when there is no evidence of wrongdoing, that's a very high-risk thing to do," FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni tells the AP. "You're running right up against core constitutional rights. You're talking about freedom of religion." And Christopher Dunn at the NYCLU says, "At the end of the day, it's pure and simple a rogue domestic surveillance operation."

Other critics say the NYPD is building dossiers on innocent people. As the AP puts it, "One of the enduring questions of the past decade is whether being safe requires giving up some liberty and privacy." Cohen and his former deputy, CIA veteran Larry Sanchez, think they know the answer to that question. Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sanchez said the key to preventing terrorism was to view "innocuous activity, including behavior that might be protected by the First Amendment, as a potential precursor to terrorism." Such activity includes seemingly innocuous stuff like commenting on a website, so choose your words carefully!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on August 24, 2011 3:24 PM

Comments [rss]

canofpeas

Let's completely ignore the spying going on in DC by zionists and concentrate on the scapegoats.

Ken Kennedy

What are you paranoid liberals worried about? Seriously? Do you think the NYPD or CIA cares about your latest purchase at American Apparel? Why do you hate America? If you don't like it here, then move to the People's Republic of China, Russia, or Iran and do your blog and posting there. Let's see how much you hate America then?

antonuu1986

Democracy Now did a comprehensive show on this story today: http://www.democracynow.org/20...

Cat1982

Why would anyone admit to that in a poll? You would have to be an idiot.

bggb

This coming from the guy who cites cab ride conversations?

Polling is an established science. Feel free to provide actual critiques if you'd like.

But I suspect you're just interested in your unjustified stereotypes.

Cat1982

It is an established science. One that is entirely dependent upon those being polled telling the truth.

bggb

You don't believe in poll results b/c they don't fit with your preconceived notions based on anecdotal evidence.

At least admit what you're doing.

Cat1982

If they had done this sort of thing from the beginning, September 11th would not have happened. Like it or not many Muslims in this country are sympathetic to the terrorists. They themselves might not be terrorists, but you can be sure they know people who are involved in activities like that. It is what it is, and until moderate muslims speak up against these people and show the world that they aren't all like that, this is what is going to happen. It's just reality and you can either deal with it or not. My entire idea on this is if you arent doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to be afraid of or worried about.

bggb

No actually, a lot of Muslims are NOT sympathetic to "terrorists", especially not actual terrorists, like the 9/11 attackers.

There is simply no evidence to back up your ethnic and religion-based stereotyping.

Cat1982

Then all those cab drivers I've spoken with must be lying. And all those raids on hookah bars and muslim social clubs in astoria that I know people who have been involved with didn't happen either I'm sure. My bad.

pendejito

Yes because I am sure the cab drivers spill their guts about how appreciative they are to Muslim terrorists to a 10 minute, $8, cab ride customer.

Get over yourself.

Cat1982

Actually, they will say that they understand why it happened and that the US is mostly to blame. All it takes is you to ask them. Also, I am only talking about muslims in the city since I do think cities tend to be the area's where the ones who are more likely to be involved in terrorist activity would be. I don't think its most muslims in the general US.

pendejito

Well, I hope you understand why it happened too, or we haven't learned anything about 9/11. There IS a reason as to "why they hate us" after all, we just need to look back US foreign policy in that area. Though I think most cab drivers can understand this resentment, I most of the ones I have talked too, having lived in Pakistan myself for many years, are just happy to be in the US and think OBL has just given them all a bad rep.

Cat1982

Even if I understand what you are saying, that whole argument is like blaming a woman being raped for what she is wearing.

pendejito

If US foreign policy involvement in the Middle East, from Saudi Arabia, to Iran, to Palestine, to Pakistan, and the events that followed in Afgahnistan and Iraq post 9/11 is the equivalent of what that woman was wearing, then yes.

But unfortunately you seem to disregard US military involvement in this region pre-9/11. Am I condoning 9/11, absolutely not, for those bastards were fanatics, but at least I have some understanding of where the overall popular resentment to US influence in that region comes from.

Time to hit the history books my friend. I would start with Iran, where an elected official was forced out of power, only to me replaced with a US-backed dictator. I'm sure if China took our democracy and installed a pro-China dictator, you'd be somewhat upset.

Cat1982

I like your china analogy and I understand the resentment. I resent them for basically living like animals in the dark ages and for what they do to women. The irony is that the US certainly played a hand in Iran becoming like that. I know my middle eastern history, but the time for excuses will have to come to an end for them to move forward and im not sure thats happening anytime soon, and as far as I am concerned, Islam is a major problem in terms of them moving forward.

pendejito

"the time for excuses will have to come to an end for them to move forward and im not sure thats happening anytime soon"

Yeah, except that now with given them a million more excuses to hate us. Lets start with Iraq, we invaded why? We BROUGHT terrorism to Iraq, there was NO Al-Qaeda there before the US invasion. The Afghan invasion I support, but Iraq? And what about all the civilians dying in pakistan and Afghanistan, are those not excuses. And now snoops in NY mosques.

And don't blame Islam. Just look at the democratic revolutions across the middle east by educated masses of secular young people wanting the same things we have here. Do I need to mention the moderate Islamic countries of Turky and Indonesia, who seem to be doing just fine.

The only backwards country, where women can't drive or leave the house without a male escort, and where KING still rule, is.......Saudi Arabia, our friend. Where evidently, we have US troops stationed, to protect the country.

Now, just why "do they hate us" again?

Cat1982

The only backwards country? Pakistan, Afghanistan, basically the entire middle east lives under sharia law in one form or another.

I dont care about civilians dying in those countries if Im 100% honest. Many of those "civilians" are aiding and abetting terrorists. You don't want the US to kill you? Dont live in a house with a terrorist. Plain and simple. Do not think for a second that they care about American lives.

I do not support the Iraq war. I will say that. I personally would love to let them all just blow eachother up bc that eventually will happen anyway without a dictator a la Saddam Hussein. We should not be involved and it's clear we are not helping.

I am not going to condone America's hypocritical foreign policy esp when it comes to pakistan or SA. I think its despicable. The government knows how most of Pakistan is filled with terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, they proved it when they made the choice not to tell anyone in the government about the bin Laden raid. That was the most telling thing about how much the US trusts the majority of those people and their government. They knew someone would snitch.

Indonesia and Turkey have increasingly had fundamentalist groups multiply. That being said, yes they are relatively good examples.

Snoops in moques? Well if these snoops werent turning out valuable information on a regular basis regarding terrorist activity, they wouldnt still be there I can promise you that. The fact is that they are and thats why they continue with these intel programs.

pendejito

"I dont care about civilians dying in those countries if Im 100% honest."

An THAT my friend, is why they hate us, and why the cab drivers understand the resentment. Looks like we've answered our question.

Cat1982

I would care if most of these civilians dying werent living with terrorists. Again, don't think for a second that a number of these people would have no problem killing you or I if given the chance. They don't even have respect for the lives of their own people, as FAR more civilians are killed by their own then by the US military. But analyzing themselves has never been their strong suit.