Excerpt:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for an investigation into an alleged "secret NYPD-CIA program to spy on Muslims." The outrage is based on an Associated Press report about NYPD counter-terrorism efforts that sound explosive, but are actually common-sense measures that aren't anything new. This is just another example of CAIR's campaign to convince Muslims that they are being victimized and CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood fronts are their protectors.
The AP report claims that after 9/11, the NYPD went to the CIA to help it build its intelligence-gathering capabilities. David Cohen, a 35-year CIA veteran, went to the NYPD. As a former CIA operations chief, he was an understandable choice. Cohen then asked CIA Director George Tenet for more support and he sent Larry Sanchez in March 2002. The loaning of operatives between government agencies happens regularly and is nothing new, but the receiving agency is supposed to pay the tab of the loaned officer. To the shock of the AP and CAIR, Sanchez remained on the CIA payroll.
The fact that the CIA shared expertise to the NYPD when it was reforming its counter-terrorism strategy is a good thing, and even if Sanchez's salary shouldn't have been paid by the CIA, that is not a violation of civil liberties. That's a problem for the accountants to handle. The outrage over the program makes it sound like the CIA was engaged in domestic spying, which would indeed be a clear violation, but that's not what is happening. The CIA, including the CIA officers on loan to the NYPD, did not engage in the intelligence-gathering. The agency simply provided guidance. It remained an NYPD operation.