http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/313764/thank-you-ray-kelly-deroy-murdock
As an American and a New Yorker, I have just two words for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the New York Police Department, which he leads: Thank you.
Gratitude towards Kelly and the NYPD is surprisingly rare these days, especially regarding the enormous success that Gotham’s cops have enjoyed in preventing America’s largest city from enduring Islamic terrorism in the years since al-Qaeda’s mass murder on September 11, 2001. Rather than salute the NYPD for averting hundreds or even thousands more deaths, critics slam the law-enforcement professionals who successfully have guarded one of the War on Terror’s most active fronts.
“The FBI considers the NYPD’s intelligence gathering practices since 9/11 not only a waste of money but a violation of Americans’ rights, “Newsmax’s chief Washington correspondent, Ronald Kessler, reveals in his new book, The Secrets of the FBI, published Tuesday. “The NYPD has been sending undercover operatives to political meetings,” one FBI official complains to Kessler. “We are not engaging in that kind of aimless intelligence gathering on mosques or political meetings without a predication that terrorist activities might be involved.”
The FBI’s jealousy and turf-mindedness aside, it often is tough to develop “predication” without “aimless intelligence gathering.”
Last May, Congressman Rush Holt (D., N.J.) sponsored an amendment to condemn law-enforcement agencies that practice religious, racial, or ethnic profiling. As the New York Post noted, Holt also demanded that the Justice Department investigate “a pattern of surveillance and infiltration by the New York Police Department against innocent American Muslims in the absence of a valid investigative reason.”
This liberal attack on the NYPD’s counterterrorism activities was defeated 193 to 232 on a mainly party-line vote, with Democrats largely supportive and Republicans opposed.
Similarly, the Associated Press this April won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for highlighting “the New York Police Department’s clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities.” Responding in the June Commentary, however, Mitchell D. Silber — the NYPD’s former director of intelligence analysis — argues that these AP articles are “rife with inaccuracies” and “confuse events and policies in ways that are misleading and cast the tale they are telling in the worst possible light.”
As an American and a New Yorker, I have just two words for detractors of Commissioner Kelly and the NYPD: Back off.
The NYPD’s foes ignore two pivotal realities:
First, Kelly and the NYPD have broken no laws.
Since 1985, the NYPD has operated under the Handschu Guidelines. These rules shield political protesters from overzealous cops. Post 9/11, the NYPD asked a federal court to modify Handschu, given the need to battle terrorism. The court eventually agreed, and now the NYPD follows Handschu, as amended.
Handschu acknowledges a truism that escapes most cop bashers: “In its effort to anticipate or prevent unlawful activity, including terrorist acts, the NYPD must, at times, initiate investigations in advance of unlawful conduct.”
Yes, Virginia: Sometimes cops try to stop crime, rather than react to it. This is doubly true of Islamic terrorism, given its lust for widespread bloodshed.
Handschu further states: “The NYPD is authorized to visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public” and “to conduct online search activity and to access online sites and forums on the same terms . . . as members of the public.”
As Commissioner Kelly declared March 3 at Fordham Law School, “Anyone who intimates that it is unlawful for the Police Department to search online, visit public places, or map neighborhoods has either not read, misunderstood, or intentionally obfuscated the meaning of the Handschu Guidelines.”
For his part, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan backed Kelly in a visit to One Police Plaza in April. Brennan said: “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.”
Second, neither prizes nor prose can obscure the fact that the NYPD has led or supported counterterrorist efforts that repeatedly have scuttled conspiracies to commit mass homicide against innocent New Yorkers and visitors from across the country and around the globe.
“Since 9/11, New York City has been targeted by terrorists in 14 different plots,” Kelly said at Fordham. “Thanks to the work of the Police Department, the FBI, and a good deal of luck, none of these plots have succeeded. In fact, while the city saw terrorist attacks in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, no attack has taken place in the past ten years.”
After staying mum on the specifics of these plots for years, the NYPD finally released a list of these conspiracies. Often in conjunction with domestic and international security agencies, the NYPD has stymied or helped thwart most of these efforts to spill blood on the sidewalks of New York. Details of these plots should remind Americans of the severe danger that terrorists still pose.
1. Subway cyanide plot: As Ron Suskind reported in his book The One Percent Doctrine, “Al-Qaeda terrorists came within 45 days of attacking the New York subway system with a lethal gas similar to that used in Nazi death camps . . . the U.S. learned of the plot from a CIA mole inside al-Qaeda.” In early 2003, U.S. intelligence discovered this conspiracy on the laptop of a Bahraini terrorist caught in Saudi Arabia. The computer contained plans for a hydrogen-cyanide gas-dispersal device nicknamed mubtakkar, or “inventive” in Arabic.
“In the world of terrorist weaponry,” Suskind wrote, “this was the equivalent of splitting the atom.” The plan was to place several of these mechanisms on Gotham subway cars. For reasons still unclear, however, al-Qaeda’s No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, canceled the assault at T minus 45 days.
2. Garment District plot: The Pakistani-born Uzair Paracha, according to the NYPD, “discussed with top al-Qaeda leaders the prospect of smuggling weapons and explosives — possibly even a nuclear device — into Manhattan’s Garment District through his father’s import-export business.”
The Justice Department states that this permanent resident alien worked with Majid Khan and Ammar al-Baluchi, both members of al-Qaeda. Paracha helped Khan “obtain a travel document that would have allowed Khan to re-enter the United States to commit a terrorist act,” Justice explained. “Khan intended to carry out an attack on gasoline stations.”
Paracha posed as Khan in order to build a legend of Khan as a visitor to America, even though Khan was in Pakistan. This included Paracha’s masquerading as Khan before U.S. immigration officials and agreeing to use Khan’s credit card domestically. Paracha and his father had discussed with Khan and al-Baluchi their receiving a $200,000 fee for this material support.
Uzair Paracha was arrested on March 28, 2003, and convicted on November 25, 2005, on all five terror-related charges that he faced. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on July 20, 2006.
U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said: “The FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force’s ability to interdict and prevent [Paracha’s] plan from succeeding does not mitigate the seriousness of the offense, and more than justifies the sentence imposed.”
3. Brooklyn Bridge plot: On October 28, 2003, Iyman Faris — a 34-year-old Kashmiri native also known as Mohammad Rauf — received a 20-year federal prison sentence for “providing material support and resources to al Qaeda,” the Justice Department stated. The naturalized U.S. citizen traveled to an al-Qaeda terror camp in Afghanistan in late 2000, where he met Osama bin Laden.
“The al Qaeda leader spoke with Faris about destroying a bridge in New York City by severing its suspension cables, and tasked Faris with obtaining the equipment needed for that operation. The leader also explained that al-Qaeda was planning to derail trains, and asked Faris to procure the tools for that plot as well.” Faris researched “gas cutters,” which he would use to sever the Brooklyn Bridge’s suspension cables.
Before his arrest, Faris transmitted a coded message that his scheme might fail. The NYPD believes that its robust deployment of officers, dogs, and checkpoints prompted a frustrated Faris to report to his supervisors: “The weather is too hot.”
4. New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup-headquarters plot: The Indian-born, British-reared Dhiren Barot converted to Islam with a vengeance. According to CBS News, he began his terrorist training in 1995 at camps in Pakistan, Kashmir, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Barot made two reconnaissance trips to the U.S. in August 2000 and March 2001. On his second visit, he videotaped the World Trade Center. His footage of the Twin Towers includes a male voice imitating the sound of an explosion.
According to British prosecutors, Barot’s handwritten notebook envisioned a “memorable black day for the enemies of Islam.” He planned to stuff three limousines with gas cylinders, explosives, and nails, and to detonate them in parking garages under London’s Ritz and Savoy Hotels. He hoped to bomb a London subway train beneath the River Thames, which would “cause pandemonium . . . explosions, flooding, drowning,” Barot wrote.
Barot also targeted the Citigroup building and the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, Prudential’s New Jersey headquarters, and the World Bank’s offices in Washington, D.C.
Barot was arrested in London on August 3, 2004. He pleaded guilty to terror charges in August 2009.
“You planned to slaughter hundreds, if not thousands, of wholly innocent men, women, and children,” said British judge Neil Butterfield on September 10, 2009 — before giving Barot life in prison. “You were planning to bring indiscriminate carnage, bloodshed and butchery — first in Washington, Newark, and New York, and then London.”
Barot’s seven conspirators, in what the British call Operation Rhyme, are jailed in the U.K. for terms ranging from 15 to 26 years.
5. Herald Square subway station plot: Shahawar Matin Siraj and James Elshafay were arrested on August 27, 2004. According to the Justice Department, they “plotted to plant explosive devices at the Herald Square subway station in order to disrupt commerce and transportation in New York City and damage the economy.” Herald Square is one block from Madison Square Garden, where the 2004 Republican National Convention commenced the morning after Siraj and Elshafay were detained.
As Justice explained, “Siraj and Elshafay drove to the subway station on August 21, 2004, entered and inspected the station, and then returned to their car and drew diagrams of the location in order to help them later place a bomb.” Elshafay reportedly decided to plant the bomb while dressed as a Hasidic Jew, as he put it, “’cause they know Jews aren’t the ones doing it.”
Siraj earned a 30-year prison sentence. Elshafay received five years on March 2, 2007.
Federal prosecutor Roslynn R. Mauskopf, according to Justice, “praised the outstanding work of the New York City Police Department and, in particular, the courageous work of the Intelligence Division’s undercover detective known only as ‘Kamil Pasha’ who testified at trial.”
