This from Associated Press:
NEW YORK (AP) -- Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the New York Police Department has become one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies, targeting ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The operations have benefited from unprecedented help from the CIA, a partnership that has blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying.
The department has dispatched undercover officers, known as "rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing.
Neither the city council, which finances the department, nor the federal government, which has given NYPD more than $1.6 billion since 9/11, is told exactly what's going on.
Many of these operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit.
(Before you read my comments, do be warned: I was upset when I wrote them and rambled a bit)
According to the link above (do read, it's quite the interesting article), David Cohen, a retired CIA man, was hired by the NYPD for its intelligence division. Following, Cohen turned the division into a sort of mini-CIA to infiltrate Muslim and ethnic neighborhoods throughout the city.
Now, it may just be me, but I think this "giving up liberties for security" thing has gone way, way too far. It is a sign of terrible decay in a nation's political institutions when an intelligence agency is able to carry on domestic spying without being challenged by anyone more important than a bunch of reporters. Further, it really deepens my disillusionment with the Democrats to see this kind of thing still going on. I voted for Obama to return our country to a paragon of democracy, but he obviously hasn't been doing that.
I'm also feeling more and more sick of Obama. Though an obviously intelligent, well-spoken intellectual, he hasn't done much to fix the civil rights violations that were enacted during the Bush imperium. Sure, the almost-public healthcare was an almost-victory, and the extension of insurance to 4 million children was a definitely heroic act, but it seems like on almost every important issue, our good President has backed down to the Republicans, constantly weakening the position of the American people.
These civil rights violations have gone too far, is really what I'm saying. I would love to give 50% of my income away to help a starving child in Mozambique or even Detroit, but I will not--I will not--submit to having my civil rights stripped away in the name of "security". What was it that FDR said? Ah, yes.
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.
Now, see, I think that may be the most important thing FDR ever said. And we've forgotten it, just let the corporate elites of this country steamroll right over us and fill our brains with their hideous, reactionary filth.
And I'm sick of it.
