SurveillanceNYPD designated all NYC mosques as terrorist organizations to facilitate broad surveillance
The New York Police Department (NYPD) secretly labeled entire mosques in New York as terrorist organizations, allowing the NYPD to use surveillance techniques including informants and spies without needing evidence or proof of criminal or terrorist activities to investigate the mosques. The investigations, known as Terrorism Enterprise Investigations (TEI), began after the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
Terrorism Enterprise Investigations program enables NYPD surveillance of mosques // Source: nasimonline.ir
The New York Police Department (NYPD) secretly labeled entire mosques in New York as terrorist organizations, allowing the NYPD to use surveillance techniques including informants and spies without needing evidence or proof of criminal or terrorist activities to investigate the mosques. The investigations, known as Terrorism Enterprise Investigations(TEI), began after the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. TechDirt reports that at least a dozen TEIs have been opened into mosques to help law enforcement investigate terrorist cells. Designating an entire organization or mosques as a terrorism enterprise subjects all members of the organizations or attendees of sermons to investigation and surveillance. TEIs may be active for years, allowing for continuous surveillance without a criminal charge.
Bill de Blasio, a frontrunner for New York City mayor, said last Wednesday on Twitter that he was “deeply troubled NYPD has labeled entire mosques & Muslim orgs terror groups with seemingly no leads. Security AND liberty make us strong.”
The news of the NYPD’s secret operations were documented in reports obtained by the Associated Press, and are part of a book by AP reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, titled Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America. The book is based on previously classified NYPD files and interviews with current and former law enforcement officials including CIA and FBI agents.
TechDirtnotes that the surveillance program also investigated board members of New York’s Islamic organizations in order to fill intelligence gaps. Goldman and Apuzzo reported that, one confidential NYPD document shows the police planning to place informants in leadership positions at mosques and other organizations, including the Arab American Association of New York in Brooklyn, a secular social-service organization.
Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the organization, said she felt betrayed. At the time when the NYPD was planning to place an informant inside her organization, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was congratulating the organization’s soccer team, Brooklyn United, for winning the NYPD’s soccer league. “It creates mistrust in our organizations,” said Sarsour. “It makes one wonder and question who is sitting on the boards of the institutions where we work and pray.”
