Craziness at Ground Zero

This is just crazy. NYPD officers can't set foot at Ground Zero without permission of the Port Authority while they're on duty because of an ongoing feud between NYPD brass and PANY/NJ brass over security at Ground Zero. And it gets worse:

The axing of Brian Pyke, 46, a retired NYPD cop who had worked at Ground Zero since the Twin Towers were destroyed, is one of the most outrageous examples of the battle between NYPD and PA police over WTC security - a clash initially reported in The Post last week.

Pyke's problems began July 12 at about 9 p.m., when he finished his 12-hour shift for FJC Security, a private firm hired by the PA to help guard the site. As Pyke was about to end another "emotional and draining" day at the pit, he realized he had lost his keys.

After searching for 20 minutes, he heard that an NYPD cop posted in a squad car outside a nearby gate had found keys hanging from Pyke's pickup truck's door.

The young cop who found his keys was part of the NYPD program to position squad cars around the clock at the four WTC entry points since early June, when the PA ignored anti-terror concerns that the gates were being manned not by PA cops but by unarmed FJC employees.

"I was thanking the kid for the keys, and he says he never saw Ground Zero and asked, 'Can I take a look?' " Pyke said.

"I figured, 'What's the harm?' and told him, 'I can do it real quick,' " Pyke said.

No sooner had the pair stepped on the platform than they were confronted by a PA cop.

The next day, Pyke was summoned from home to the SJC office and told that he'd been banned from Ground Zero by Nancy Johnson, the PA's WTC site manager for maintenance and security.

Bureacratic turf wars have affected every aspect of the Ground Zero rebuilding process, and security concerns have greatly affected the process. After all, it was a NYPD security review that forced the Port Authority to relocate and shift the Freedom Tower to address concerns about truck bombs hitting the building from West Street.