Top CIA Agent Working for NYPD Draws Scrutiny, Few Answers

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/10/18-2

WASHINGTON — Three months ago, one of the CIA’s most experienced clandestine operatives started work inside the New York Police Department. His title is special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence. On that much, everyone agrees.

Exactly what he’s doing there, however, is much less clear.

Since The Associated Press revealed the assignment in August, federal and city officials have offered differing explanations for why this CIA officer — a seasoned operative who handled foreign agents and ran complex operations in Jordan and Pakistan — was assigned to a municipal police department. The CIA is prohibited from spying domestically, and its unusual partnership with the NYPD has troubled top lawmakers and prompted an internal investigation.

His role is important because the last time a CIA officer worked so closely with the NYPD, beginning in the months after the 9/11 attacks, he became the architect of aggressive police programs that monitored Muslim neighborhoods. With the earlier help from this CIA official, the police put entire communities under the microscope based on ethnicity rather allegations of wrongdoing, according to the AP investigation.

More at the link --

[Angry Dragon]

1. I thought it was against the law for the CIA to work inside

the border of the US

[Raster]

2. He's just a "consultant."

[FarCenter]

4. Depends on the meaning of "work" and "inside"

[gratuitous]

3. Oh, what's the big deal?

I have been repeatedly assured that my niggling concerns over constitutional abridgments and shortcuts is badly misplaced. Nobody's going off to gulags, rumors of torture and other official wrongdoing are just rumors, and extrajudicial executions are good for the country and particularly for national security.

Just quit looking into stuff, trust our leaders, and get on with working for the election and re-election of "good" Democrats!