The FBI is so opposed to the NYPD’s so-called Muslim spying program that top brass have barred agents from dealing with cops from the department’s intelligence division, according to explosive claims in a new book.
The feds think the surveillance program is “a waste of money” and an affront to constitutional rights.
The anonymous claims come in an updated edition of “The Secrets of the FBI,” due out next week by best-selling investigative author Ronald Kessler.
The NYPD’s exhaustive post-9/11 mapping and tracking of Muslim communities in the city — and in other jurisdictions — came to light in a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles by the Associated Press.
“What never came out is that the FBI considers the NYPD’s intelligence gathering practices since 9/11 not only a waste of money but a violation of Americans’ rights,” wrote Kessler, who in April broke news of Colombian sexcapades by Secret Service agents doing advance work for President Obama.
“We will not be a party to it,” an FBI source told Kessler.
The NYPD has long denied any wrongdoing.
“There’s been a suggestion that what we are doing doesn’t comport with legal requirements, and that’s not the case,” Paul Browne, the NYPD’s chief spokesman said in February. “Everything we’re doing is done constitutionally.”
Responding in March to a lawmaker’s question about “overbroad and discriminatory efforts” by the NYPD, FBI Director Robert Mueller was more complimentary than critical.
“Ray Kelly and the New York Police Department have done a remarkable job in protecting New York,” Mueller said at the time. “And the fact of the matter is New York has been and will continue to be a target. And we have worked closely — very closely — together with them.”
The NYPD and FBI declined comment Tuesday.
A March Quinnipiac University poll found that 58% of New Yorkers approve of the NYPD’s dealing with Muslims, and 82% approve of the department’s counterterrorism efforts overall.
The White House added its stamp of approval a month later when President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan visited police headquarters.
“I have full confidence that the NYPD is doing things consistent with the law, and it’s something that again has been responsible for keeping this city safe over the past decade,” he said.