9 Secrets of the NYPD’s Spy Unit Revealed in ‘Enemies Within’

“A mosque is different than a church or temple,” one NYPD officer familiar with the effort explained. Since Muslims pray more than once a day at their places of worship, the officer continued, it makes it different than a church. “They pray five times a day…If something bad is going to happen, they’re going to hear about it all in the mosques.”

2. They hired a CIA operative to feed them classified information and help run the program

The idea of putting a CIA officer inside a municipal police department had never been tried. But David Cohen knew that in order for a spying program of this caliber to work, he’d need someone who had access to “the latest raw federal intelligence.” That someone was Larry Sanchez, a CIA analyst in between assignments at Langley. After CIA Director George Tenet signed off, Sanchez was given the long-winded title of “CIA director’s counterterrorism liaison to the state of New York.” His actual job, Apuzzo and Goldman reveal, was to be Cohen’s “personal CIA representative.”  The unprecedented move bridged a gap between the NYPD and CIA that, in retrospect, should have remained. “NYPD officers are trained to uphold the law,” Apuzzo and Goldman write. “CIA officers are trained to subvert [it].”

3. The NYPD wanted to visit Internet cafes and join gyms to monitor ‘suspicious activity’ in Muslim communities

After studying the dossiers of the 9/11 hijackers, Cohen and Sanchez became convinced that, if they had “eyes and ears” in the right communities, they’d be able to spot potential terrorists. Much of this came from studying the final moves of Mohamed Atta, one of the ringleaders in 9/11. Atta had traveled the country, attended mosques sporadically, visited Internet cafes, and joined gyms. Activities like this became a “roadmap” for the new spying unit. “If cops had a better handle on…which Internet cafes were nearby…or even which gyms a young Middle Eastern man would attend…maybe they could piece together the clues. Maybe they could prevent the next 9/11.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *