By Peter J. Sampson and John P. McAlpin, The Record (Hackensack N.J.) –
HACKENSACK, N.J. — The FBI chief for New Jersey called reporters to his office Wednesday to describe how news about the New York Police Department’s secret surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey has had a chilling effect on terrorism investigations.
“We’re starting to see cooperation being pulled back,” said Michael Ward, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark Division. “People are concerned that they’re being followed … that they can’t trust law enforcement, and it’s having a negative impact.”
But an NYPD spokesman responded Wednesday, saying the department continues to cultivate strong relations in the Muslim community and that surveillance has prevented several terrorist attacks.
Also on Wednesday, a Paterson mosque leader said that a group of clergy representing Jewish, Catholic and Episcopal faiths will gather alongside Muslims at a news conference Thursday in Jersey City. Mohamed El Filali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson, said the event is scheduled for noon at St. Peter’s College.
Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday said he’s concerned by Ward’s observation that the NYPD surveillance may have hampered the Muslim community’s cooperation with law enforcement.
Ward summoned reporters to his offices in downtown Newark to counter concerns that he said have begun to surface about the FBI’s credibility and its capability to combat terrorism.
“Our job in counterterrorism is to prevent the event before it happens, and that requires a certain amount of intelligence (and) effort, what I call having your finger on the pulse,” Ward said. “Now with that comes a tremendous amount of responsibility because techniques necessary to get ahead of the game and be preventive are very intrusive.”
He said it’s important that the public know that the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force are “being as aggressive as possible” while at the same time “following leads that are warranted and … not out just chasing anything, but there’s a specific law enforcement reason behind what you’re doing, and that you used the least intrusive means possible, when available.
“But again, bottom line is you do what it takes to get the job done and we’re doing that here in New Jersey,” he said.
Ward also said that his office has a good relationship with the NYPD and that as far as he knows, their surveillance operation broke no laws.
An NYPD spokesman, Paul Browne, countered Ward’s remarks, saying the NYPD “has established strong, ongoing relations in the Muslim community,” and cited the disruption of several terrorist plots over the years that resulted from NYPD operations.
“We are proactive because New Yorkers’ lives depend on it,” Browne said.
Ward said his agents have a good relationship with NYPD’s counterterrorism branch, which has two officers on the Newark JTTF who keep their superiors in New York informed on what is going on in New Jersey. The problem is with the NYPD’s Intelligence Division, a separate branch that operates largely on its own, he said. While they have worked collaboratively and successfully in the past, Ward said, the FBI and JTTF in New Jersey “do not have great clarity in everything that they do” in the state, and he would like that to change.
“I don’t like having blind spots, blind spots equal risk,” he said. “If we’re a day late in connecting a dot, it could be a problem.”
In a series of articles, The Associated Press reported that the NYPD’s Intelligence Division was conducting surveillance of Muslim businesses and houses of worship in Newark and a mosque in Paterson, and monitoring Muslim student associations at Rutgers University in Newark and New Brunswick, with no apparent indication that any were suspected of engaging in criminal activity.
Asked whether Ward sought authorization to speak about the NYPD surveillance, the White House did not comment. FBI headquarters could not be reached.
Ward’s office in Newark declined to comment.
