Associated Press documents secret department New York officials say doesn't exist

The Associated Press continues their excellent investigative report on the CIA/NYPD intelligence gathering unit that has targeted Muslim communities in the northeast, outside of the law. The most recent story by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman pretty definitively refutes the NYPD's and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's denials of the program's existence.

The program was known as the Demographics Unit and, though the NYPD denies its existence, the squad maintained a long list of "ancestries of interest" and received daily reports on life in Muslim neighborhoods, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The documents offer a rare glimpse into an intelligence program shaped and steered by a CIA officer. It was an unusual partnership, one that occasionally blurred the line between domestic and foreign spying. The CIA is prohibited from gathering intelligence inside the U.S.[...]

Using census information and government databases, the NYPD mapped ethnic neighborhoods in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Rakers then visited local businesses, chatting up store owners to determine their ethnicity and gauge their sentiment, the documents show. They played cricket and eavesdropped in the city's ethnic cafes and clubs.

When the CIA would launch drone attacks in Pakistan, the NYPD would dispatch rakers to Pakistani neighborhoods to listen for angry rhetoric and anti-American comments, current and former officials involved in the program said.

The rakers were looking for indicators of terrorism and criminal activity, the documents show, but they also kept their eyes peeled for other common neighborhood sites such as religious schools and community centers.

The focus was on a list of 28 countries that, along with "American Black Muslim," were considered "ancestries of interest." Nearly all were Muslim countries.[...]

Before The Associated Press revealed the existence of the Demographics Unit last week, Browne said neither the Demographics Unit nor the term "rakers" exist. Both are contained in the documents obtained by the AP.

An NYPD presentation, delivered inside the department, described the mission and makeup of the Demographics Unit. And a police memorandum from 2006 described an NYPD supervisor rebuking an undercover detective for not doing a good enough job reporting on community events and "rhetoric heard in cafes and hotspot locations."

Apuzzo and Goldman verified the documentation with current and former NYPD officials, who confirm that the program exists and that it does indeed single out ethnic Muslim communities. Rep. Yvette Clark, a Democrat representing a Brooklyn district, has called for a Department of Justice investigation into this program.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/r2QLH_xaqxc/-Associated-Press-documents-secret-department-New-York-officials-say-doesnt-exist

political news shows political buttons political world news political issues today