Inside Story Americas - Is Spying on Muslims Legal in the US?
A report has revealed the New York police spying on Muslim citizens without any apparent evidence of criminal activity. Is this type of surveillance legal, and what will the US government do now? Guests are Sahar Aziz, Sebastian Gorka, Haroon Moghul.

The NYPD Zagat Guide to Newark’s Best (and Most Threatening) Muslim Restaurants

GAWKER: Last night, the AP broke the news that the New York Police Department had spent months spying on Muslims in Newark, N.J. "The result was a 60-page report," AP reporter Adam Goldman writes, "containing brief summaries of businesses and their clientele." But was it a surveillance file... or just a guide to Newark's best Muslim restaurants?

"Such surveillance has become commonplace in New York City in the decade since the 2001 terrorist attacks," Goldman rightly points out. "The documents obtained by the AP show, for the first time in any detail, how those efforts stretched outside the NYPD's jurisdiction."

But as he himself acknowledges, "[t]he report cited no evidence of terrorism or criminal behavior." Indeed, it's just "a guide to Newark's Muslims." Nothing creepy about NYPD spending months monitoring Muslims outside their jurisdiction, at all. And what could be more helpful to the aspiring gourmand than a handbook of the best Halal joints in Newark? With that in mind, we've re-arranged some of the dry NYPD "notes," Zagat-style, to bring you: The NYPD Guide to Newark's Best Muslim Restaurants. » | Max Read | Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Michael Bloomberg Defends NYPD Surveillance on Muslims

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, has defended the city's police officers after they were found to have launched covert surveillance operations on Muslim student groups, businesses and mosques.

Mayor Bloomberg said that the New York Police Department had a duty to "keep this country safe" after the force was criticised for mounting surveillance operations beyond the city's borders, even compiling dossiers on Muslims in other states.

Universities including the prestigious Yale and Columbia have protested about the operations, which included officers tailing a group of students on a white water rafting trip.

Muslim residents in the neighbouring state of New Jersey, and the Long Island counties of Nassau and Suffolk, where undercover operations were carried out, have also questioned why the NYPD was investigating outside of the city limits.

But Mayor Bloomberg defended the police, saying: "We have to keep this country safe.
"The police department goes where there are allegations. That's what you'd expect them to do. That's what you'd want them to do. Remind yourself when you turn out the light tonight." Read on and comment » | Rosa Prince, New York | Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Police Chief Angers NY Muslims
The appearance by the New York police department commissioner, Ray Kelly, in a film depicting an "Islamic flag" over the White House and Muslims shooting Christians has angered the city's Muslim population. The Muslim community sees the screening of the film to 1,500 trainees and Kelly's participation in it - which he at first denied but later admitted to after his appearance became public knowledge - as part of a pattern of discrimination against their community. Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler reports from New York

Police Trainees See Anti-Islam Film

THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD: Mayor Michael Bloomberg said New York police used "terrible judgment" showing counterterrorism trainees a documentary-style film that says Muslim extremists are masquerading as moderates to destroy America from within.

Bloomberg said police have stopped showing officers The Third Jihad, a 72-minute movie that has been branded inflammatory by some Muslim organisations and was produced by a conservative group called the Clarion Fund.

"Somebody exercised some terrible judgment," he said in Albany, the state capital. "As soon as they found out about it, they stopped it." » | AP | Thursday, January 26, 2012

NYPD Arrests Two Would-be Terrorists at JFK Heading to Somalia


The Faces of Hate
NEW YORK POST: Jersey jihadis junior hellions

These are the faces of evil.

Officials last night released the mug shots of New Jersey terror suspects Mohamed Alessa, 20, and Carlos "Omar" Almonte, 24.

They were taken after the two hate-spewing terrorist wannabes were captured as they headed to Somalia, allegedly to wage holy war on Americans.

Their neighbors weren't surprised -- they said jihad started early for the two.

They were terrors in their suburban communities years before they were busted last Saturday at Kennedy Airport.

Not a single school could handle Alessa. He openly talked of blowing up his schools in the name of Islam.

Almonte was picked up by cops several times for increasingly violent behavior.

The duo are due back in Newark federal court today for a bail hearing on charges of plotting to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas. >>> Carolyn Salazar, Perry Chiaramonte and Chuck Bennett, AP | Wednesday, June 09, 2010

New York Police: Suspects Aimed for 'Jihad' in Synagogue Bomb Plot
HAARETZ: Four men arrested after planting what they thought were explosives near two synagogues and plotting to shoot down a military plane were bent on carrying out "jihad," a holy war, against America, authorities said Thursday.

The suspects were arrested Wednesday night, shortly after placing a 17-kilogram device they thought was an explosive in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Riverdale Jewish Center, another synagogue a few blocks away, authorities said.

Police blocked their escape with an 18-wheel truck, smashing their tinted SUV windows and apprehending the unarmed suspects.

At a news conference outside the Riverdale Temple in the Bronx, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly quoted one of the men as saying, "If Jews were killed in this attack ... that would be all right." >>> By News Agencies | Thursday, May 21, 2009