CIA probes self over NYPD 'Muslim spies'
Wednesday, 14 September 2011 14:56
Top CIA brass have launched a sweeping probe into whether the spy agency broke the law by helping the NYPD build intelligence-gathering programs that monitor Muslim communities.
The agency's new director, David Petraeus, told Congress yesterday that the CIA wants "to make sure we are doing the right thing."
NYPD intelligence officers looked at hundreds of mosques and student organizations, infiltrating dozens.
The officers eavesdropped in cafes and restaurants and wrote daily reports about what they overheard.
The department also maintained a list of 28 countries that, along with "American Black Muslim," the department labeled "ancestries of interest."
Much of the NYPD's intelligence-gathering was conducted by a secret team called the Demographics Unit, which used plainclothes officers to help map and monitor ethnic communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The NYPD has denied that the unit ever existed.