Here’s a spooky story: The Central Intelligence Agency has once again called unwanted attention to its clandestine collaboration with the New York Police Department, a relationship that was fortified after 9/11 and led to special NYPD surveillance of the city’s Muslim communities, as it has come to the notice of select lawmakers and media outlets that an experienced CIA operative has spent the last three months at the NYPD serving as special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence. Right. Now what does that mean? —KA
NBC New York:
The arrangement surrounding the newly arrived CIA officer has been portrayed differently than that of his predecessor. When first asked by the AP, a senior U.S. official described the posting as a sabbatical, a program aimed at giving the man in New York more management training.
Testifying at City Hall recently, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the CIA operative provides his officers “with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas.” He said the CIA operative provides “technical information” to the NYPD but “doesn’t have access to any of our investigative files.”
CIA Director David Petraeus has described him as an adviser, someone who could ensure that information was being shared.
But the CIA already has someone with that job. At its large station in New York, a CIA liaison shares intelligence with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, which has hundreds of NYPD detectives assigned to it. And the CIA did not explain how, if the officer doesn’t have access to NYPD files, he is getting management experience in a division built entirely around collecting domestic intelligence.
James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, mischaracterized him to Congress as an “embedded analyst” — his office later quietly said that was a mistake — and acknowledged it looked bad to have the CIA working so closely with a police department.
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By thecrow, October 18, 2011 at 6:27 am Link to this comment
Maybe TD should ask this CIA trivia question first:
Why did seasoned CIA agents get away with blowing the President’s head off in broad daylight 48 years ago?
Old news, I know. But it seems to explain so much.
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/head-sh0t/
Report thisBy skimohawk, October 17, 2011 at 8:39 pm Link to this comment
The CIA has been operating beyond the bounds of law since its inception. Nothing new here.
Report thisShould have been done away with years ago, as JFK tried unsuccessfully to do.
By heterochromatic, October 17, 2011 at 5:25 pm Link to this comment
This might be the worst bit of news reporting that I’ve seen on this site.
Report thisIt’s impossible to tell if the person being referred to is a current CIA agent or a
former one employed by NYPD
By PatrickHenry, October 17, 2011 at 3:44 pm Link to this comment
We waste entirely too much money with layered bureaucrats such as these.
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