An article out today in the NYTimes describes the exploits and background of a young Muslim Bangladeshi American who is a deep-cover NYPD officer (thanks to a tipster on the NEWS tab). This is like Donnie Brasco meets 21 Jump Street meets Alias.
A young police detective testified yesterday at the Herald Square bombing plot trial that he was recruited from the Police Academy 13 months after 9/11 to work deep undercover in the Muslim community to investigate Islamic extremists.The detective, a Muslim who came to America from Bangladesh when he was 7, testified that he was a 23-year-old college graduate when he was plucked from the academy in October 2002. He took an apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where, he testified, his assignment was to be a “walking camera” among Muslims there.
He said he had no regular contact with the department other than through his handler, to whom he reported by e-mail at first. During two years of living in Bay Ridge, he was involved in “numerous” investigations, he testified, and was at times shadowed by a field team to ensure his safety. [Link]
They seriously need to make this into a movie if they haven’t already started. The existence of this undercover agent came to light at the Herald Square bombing plot trial in which a U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national are accused of plotting to bomb a subway station in New York. More about the detective now:
The detective testified that he graduated from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and entered the Police Academy in July 2002. In the middle of October, roughly halfway through his academy training, he left early when he was recruited to join the Intelligence Division, where he was assigned to the Special Services Unit, which runs the undercover program.
Within three weeks, according to his testimony, he made his first appearance at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, a mosque on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, next door to the Islamic bookstore where Mr. Siraj worked. He testified that he spent time there periodically. Mr. Stolar, while questioning the detective, indicated that his reports showed he had seen Mr. Siraj 72 times over the two years, mostly in the bookstore. [Link]
Wait a minute. Is this for real? I don’t recall there being a show called Law & Order: Special Services Unit.
Here was another interesting bit. During the trial the UC was asked about suicide bombings during cross examination and he didn’t seem to know what they were:
Mr. Stolar [the defendants attorney] seemed incredulous. “You had never before heard of suicide bombings taking place in Israel?” he asked.
“I grew up with a very peaceful religion,” the detective responded. “All of these comments — radical beliefs — came to me when I took this assignment.” He added: “Where in Islam does it say you can blow up a train station?”… [Link]
Suicide bombing? Fogetta Bout it.
Incidentally, earlier this week Muslim organizations as well as the ACLU pressed for information about the existence of any surveillance of Muslims in the Los Angeles area:
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union asked the FBI on Monday to release documents detailing any post-Sept. 11 surveillance of Southern California mosques and Muslims.
Local Islamic leaders said they enlisted the ACLU’s help after the FBI provided little information in response to their allegations that the agency was monitoring them and their places of worship. They say some Muslims are afraid to go to mosques because they fear government monitoring…Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, said numerous Muslims reported being questioned by the FBI about their religious practices and sermons given during prayer services.
The ACLU filed the request under the federal Freedom of Information Act on behalf of individual Muslims and six Islamic groups, including the Shura Council, an Anaheim-based federation of more than 60 mosques, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group whose Southern California chapter is also in Anaheim. [Link]
