Another NYPD Terrorist 'Investigation' Turns Up Nothing But Privacy Invasions And Rights Erosion

from the when-all-you-have-an-'elite'-anti-terrorism-squad,-everything-looks-like dept

Mon, Oct 29th 2012 8:24am — Tim Cushing

It's no secret that the "War on Terror" has resulted in little more than steady paychecks for those in the loop and plenty of rights erosion everywhere else. As was detailed earlier this year, the New York Police Department has decided to follow in the clumsy footsteps of the FBI's anti-terrorism efforts, crafting its own "elite" agency (with the help of the CIA) to infiltrate the Muslim community and smoke out terrorists. The end result? Not a single lead generated.

Via Reason comes this Associated Press story about another NYPD anti-terrorism failure. Shamiur Rahman, a 19-year-old American of Bengali descent, was put to work by the NYPD's intelligence unit as an informant, earning $1000 a month in exchange for "baiting" Muslims into making inflammatory statements.

Shamiur Rahman... who has now denounced his work as an informant, said police told him to embrace a strategy called "create and capture." He said it involved creating a conversation about jihad or terrorism, then capturing the response to send to the NYPD. For his work, he earned as much as $1,000 a month and goodwill from the police after a string of minor marijuana arrests.

There's nothing like a little leverage in the form of dangling prison sentence to "motivate" your informants into giving you as much "information" as possible, even if most is unverifiable, exaggerated or simply made up. Rahman was no exception:

Police recruited Rahman in late January, after his third arrest on misdemeanor drug charges, which Rahman believed would lead to serious legal consequences. An NYPD plainclothes officer approached him in a Queens jail and asked whether he wanted to turn his life around...

In an Oct. 15 interview with the AP, however, Rahman said he received little training and spied on "everything and anyone." He took pictures inside the many mosques he visited and eavesdropped on imams. By his own measure, he said he was very good at his job and his handler never once told him he was collecting too much, no matter whom he was spying on.

He said he sometimes intentionally misinterpreted what people had said. For example, Rahman said he would ask people what they thought about the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, knowing the subject was inflammatory. It was easy to take statements out of context, he said. He said wanted to please his NYPD handler, whom he trusted and liked.

"I was trying to get money," Rahman said. "I was playing the game."

That wasn't all Rahman did. In order to avoid the sentence constantly hanging over his head, he went above and beyond. According to the AP article, Rahman took pictures inside mosques and at events, eavesdropped on imams, spied on the Muslim Student Association at John Jay College, wrote down license plate information and collected cell phone numbers. All of this activity resulted in Rahman drawing this conclusion:

Rahman, who was born in Queens, said he never witnessed any criminal activity or saw anybody do anything wrong.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne refused to comment but has denied widespread spying in the past, insisting that "police only follow leads." It's the sort of statement you expect from a spokesman, even in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. Even the "targeted" Demographics Unit cast a very wide net, assembling databases on where Muslims lived, shopped and worked and cataloguing every Muslim who adopted an Americanized surname.

Furthermore, former NYPD officials confirmed that the tactics used by Rahman were common. Rahman received little training or instruction, something that may have helped focus his efforts. Of course, if his handlers wanted a wide net cast, the last thing they would have done is give him some guidelines.

The assault on constitutional rights continues, and privacy continues to be violated, all under the dubious heading of "anti-terrorism."

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Filed Under: nypd, privacy, terrorism

24 Comments

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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:32am

The only people who are allowed to criminally conspire in private are government officials and their corporate buddies who got them there. Proles, you are the terrorists!
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:39am

Is it me, or did the NYPD just create a spy?

I wonder if the NYPD has ever heard the expression "double agent"?
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The eejit (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:46am

Let me put it this way: there is no such thing as anti-terrorism. There is only terrorism by internal and external agents.
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gorehound (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:48am

Re:
I agree ! These Politicians and their Greed are the real Problem and one day in this Century and maybe even in the next 15 years or so they are going to get one rude awakening.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:49am

Re:
Terrorists conspiring against each other, the difference is that one group of terrorists is tax funded.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:53am

Re: Death by Refridgerator!
Also, your odds of dying by interaction with police are about 1:12000, while you odds of dying in a "terror" incident are around 1:100000; meaning your 8 times more likely to die by interaction with police officer than by terrorist.
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Ninja (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:56am

The US is so obsessed with having some sort of national 'enemy' that they'll go to borderline insane efforts to pretend it's there everywhere. I was watching Ted (the teddy bear movie) these days. The evil father with a spoiled son could look like anything but no, they chose an actor that looks like the Muslim stereotype. It's anywhere and everywhere just like the Russian during the Cold War, the North Koreans etc etc.

It's a psychiatric issue. Collectively speaking.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 9:05am

Isn't Mr. Browne the genius who told us Tony Bologna didn't pepper spray those women and that the situation did not happen like the video showed?

Maybe the superhurricane will flush some of this crap out of NY.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 9:13am

The NYPD is a fucking criminal enterprise.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 9:14am

Re: Re: Death by Refridgerator!
then who are the real terrorists?
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Zos (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 9:37am

Every time i think there's no lower that the NYPD can possibly go....they rape some drunk chick in her own home, or are discovered to be planning to kidnap, rape, murder and EAT a bunch of women.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 9:47am

Re: Re: Re: Death by Refridgerator!
Dunno, never seen them.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 9:59am

What the US politicians can not recognize, is that the terrorists are like the KKK, Timothy McVie, Black Panthers, and other groups. They are not just everywhere oozing out of the wood work but are concentrated in small groups. They are not the general population.

All this business with the Homeland Security and the TSA is nothing but stage show because the terrorists aren't here. They are over there. Supposedly they just fought a war going after them. If anything I would suggest they were more successful in creating more in the Middle East than they were at getting rid of them.

GITMO is probably the best move they made to make more. Drone shooting innocents in the same locations have not endeared them to the rest. Just because the US wants to label everything they killed by drones as terrorist does not make it so.

All in all, these ideas and actions have created more resentment than if they had left it alone. It's that resentment that fuels the making of more.

I am reminded in this that the entire population has suffered these idiot ideas of catching terrorists when there doesn't seem to be one to catch locally. They are having to make them in order to justify their actions to the taxpayer. Boogymen are everywhere when you are looking at shadows.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 10:40am

Be informed! Search Google, YouTube & Facebook for more information. Stop the Patriot Act & The NDAA!!!

http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/issues/civil-liberties
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The eejit (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 10:59am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Death by Refridgerator!
I have, they're men in black and grey suits who wear shades and go by names like Mr. Orange.
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The Real Michael, 29 Oct 2012 @ 12:15pm

When you walk into an NYPD station, are you greeted with portraits of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Kim-Jong?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 1:25pm

Sounds to me like the NYPD's scheme only proved that most Muslims are ordinary people. Maybe, despite their best efforts, some good can come from this?
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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 1:50pm

Re:
No worse you see this guys pic:
Raymond W. Kelly

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/administration/headquarters_co.shtml
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DataShade (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 8:34pm

"It's no secret that the "War on Terror" has resulted in little more than steady paychecks for those in the loop and plenty of rights erosion everywhere else."

To be fair, it's also resulted in tens of thousands of dead foreigners. Granted, not from what the NYPD or FBI's done, but it's probably important to remember that as bad as the War on Terror is within the US, it's immeasurably worse everywhere else.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 9:13pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Death by Refridgerator!
That's Agent, punk. I'm here to destroy your buds.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2012 @ 10:11pm

pfft.... I'm not scared of any fucking terrorist... Who I am scared of though is my government.
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MD2000, 30 Oct 2012 @ 1:35pm

Right Up his Alley?
Where's Officer Bologna when you need him to straighten out the wayward police?
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Deja, 30 Oct 2012 @ 2:41pm

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Jeffery Haynes, 11 Dec 2012 @ 10:38pm

They should undergo private investigations conducted by professionals who are doing it for the longest time. Investigation is a critical work to do and to be able to be successful in it they should have numerous experiences.
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