Capital New York- by AZI PAYBARAH, September 9, 2013
One day before New Yorkers vote in a pair of primary elections, New York City Police Commissioner challenged the mayoral candidates to say what role the city’s police department should play “in protecting New York from global terrorism.”
“I can tell you that none of the candidates has requested a briefing from the department on this topic,” said Kelly, at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York and the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan.
Kelly’s remarks also come a few days after the publication of a book, Enemies Within, by Associated Press reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, which focused on the NYPD’s aggressive counterterrorism efforts. Documents cited in their book appear to show the NYPD’s vast surveillance program specifically targeted Muslim houses of worship, restaurants and student associations.
This morning, Kelly brushed aside criticism of the NYPD’s anti-terrorism tactics, and said “it is critically important” and that “our efforts be sustained in the next administration.”
Kelly has become a focal point in the mayoral campaign, particularly among the Democratic candidates, who have mostly promised to replace him as police commissioner, in order to overhaul the department’s stop-and-frisk policy. The candidates have been less vocal about Kelly’s counter-terrorism operation, and a number of candidates who promised to replace him, also said they support his possible nomination to head the federal Department of Homeland Security.
In his speech, Kelly posed his own questions to the candidates.
“What is their understanding of the terrorist threat to New York City and it’s immediacy? What is their perspective on the role the NYPD should play in protecting New York from global terrorism? Will they expend their political capital and fight in Washington for the federal funds that we need to maintain our defenses?” he asked. “It is imperative that we find out.”
Recent reports, drawn from the book by Apuzzo and Goldman, have started a cursory debate about some of the department’s tactics.
Leading Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio said that the threshold for surveillance needs to be raised, in response to a report that the NYPD put entire mosques under surveillance for the purposes of recording sermons and conducting investigations into some mosque attendees. De Blasio said “anything that is not based on specific leads should not continue.”
The leading Republican mayoral candidate, Joe Lhota, a former aide to mayor Rudy Giuliani, said in a debate yesterday that every crime-fighting policy employed by Kelly needs to be preserved.
The reporting from Apuzzo and Goldman has shed some new light on what exactly that means.
They describe the work undertaken by David Cohen, who became the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence, a new position Kelly created when he returned to the department. In a 2002 letter to a federal judge, first made public by Apuzzo and Goldman, Cohen argued that the NYPD should be able to surveill suspects even if they have not committed criminal acts, because meeting that threshold could be problematic.
“The determination of whether or not there is specific information suggesting criminal activity may be a difficult one,” he wrote. He added, “This criminal activity requirement as a threshold for investigative authority may effectively shield from discovery the lawful predatory activities which invariably precede terrorist attacks. In the case of terrorism, to wait for an indication of crime before investigating is to wait far too long.”
Kelly was the NYPD commissioner when the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, and began a second stint as police commissioner on January 1, 2002, while Ground Zero was smoldering from the attacks on September 11th, 2001. Since that time, he built what he called the first “counter terrorism bureau” of any municipal police department in America, and he has often warned about the consequences of limiting the department’s reach.
Kelly also has sent NYPD officers to various cities overseas, often paying for them out of private donations raised by a charitable arm of the NYPD. In an interview at the 92nd Street Y back in January, Kelly was asked if “there been any actual tips about potential attacks in New York that you picked up overseas in any of these offices?” Kelly said there had not.
The Port Authority is taking everyone’s safety & security in jeopardy and undermining all the counterterrorism measures that have been put in place by allowing crimes such as the illegal policy of desposing lost valid passports in the garbage that are found in the Port Auhority Bus Terminal. Now just imagine the damage that a terrorist cell could do with those valid lost passports or an identity theft ring.
Also, the Port Authority turns a blind eye to the rampant theft of lost property from inside of the Port Authority Bus Terminal’s Lost & Found Dept. by their supervisors. In this age of global terrorism and rampant identity theft, the Port Authority is a reckless shameful disgusting embarrassment of bi-state transportation agency where it comes to safety & security in this area. To ignore this gaffe would be a crime on all levels of local, state & federal government, who have the power to put a stop to this madness. Action must be taken against these corrupt incompetent criminals in the Port Authority before another terrorist attack takes place & more innocent lives are lost due to their utter disregard about our safety & security not to mention their disgraceful feeling of self entitlement to patron’s lost property at the PABT.
Google “Donna Lebourne abc news,” & “found, stolen, trashed by PA.” and see the crimes & corruption for yourself.