Has NYPD Gone Too Far In Surveillance Efforts Looking For Islamic Extremists?

Following the intel failures that led to the US government being unprepared for the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD vastly expanded its intel efforts, including establishing outposts in foreign countries to bring in intel directly from those foreign countries instead of relying solely on the FBI or CIA.

Those surveillance efforts include looking for Muslim extremists in the New York City metro area - including in New Jersey. While the NYPD can claim that they've thwarted numerous plots involving Islamic terrorists since 9/11, there have been several notable failures, including the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shazad. In that case, police didn't know of the plot to attack Times Square with a bomb planted in a SUV. Police learned of the incident after a local vendor alerted police to the smoking vehicle and it was only after conducting standard investigation techniques that Shazad was arrested.

As a result of the revelations about the scope of the surveillance, Muslim groups across the region are speaking out against the NYPD spying efforts, noting that it's a potential civil rights violation. They have a point, and while then-New Jersey Governor Richard Codey was informed of the spying efforts in places like Newark and elsewhere in the state, it doesn't mean that there was sufficient oversight.

Following the NYPD's illegal surveillance of radical groups during the 1970s, the NYPD entered into an agreement in 1985 called Handschu that required oversight of surveillance operations.

The Handschu agreement, as it is often referred to, was established in 1985 after decades of covert NYPD infiltration of activist groups including the New York City chapter of the Black Panthers. It also kept tabs on citizens who had done nothing more than sign a petition to end the Vietnam war, reporting their political positions to potential employers.

The element of the NYPD responsible for this surveillance went through a number of names, including the Italian squad, the black hand squad, and the bureau of special services. Today it is known as the intelligence division.

Handschu restricted the department's powers to monitor political groups, stipulating that police needed information indicating that a crime was being committed in order to investigate political activity. The rules remained in place for over 15 years.

In 2002 the NYPD, under the guidance of former CIA officer Cohen, lobbied to have Handschu's restrictions significantly loosened, following the September 11 attacks of the previous year. The department argued that it could not effectively fight terrorism with the rules in place.

The NYPD largely got what it wanted in 2003, when significant modifications were made to the agreement.

Civil rights attorney Jethro Eisentstein, who is involved in a class action lawsuit against the NYPD in relation to Handschu, says what remains of the agreement is vitally important to the latest revelations concerning the NYPD's surveillance of Muslim communities.

Specifically, Handschu required that surveillance operations must secure a warrant from a three-person panel comprised of two police commissioners and a mayor-appointed civilian. That was modified in 2003 when the panel was reduced to a single person.

It's the reduction of the panel to a single person that opens the door to mischief and it's time to restore a 3-person panel. That wont necessarily eliminate all warrants along these lines, but introduces a level of oversight lacking when you have a single person who is intent upon investigations that might lead to violations of civil rights (to say nothing of accusations of malfeasance).

Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Ray Kelly are defending the actions, and Bloomberg calls critics naive. Sorry, but that doesn't quite cut it. While there are indeed serious concerns about terror groups operating in the NYC metro area based on past history (both the 9/11 attackers and the 1993 WTC bombers had ties to the metro area), wholesale spying on an entire community is overbroad. It also reduces the level of trust between the Muslim community that would be willing to work with law enforcement to root out extremists in their midst and actually makes it more difficult to track down those who might be plotting attacks down the line.

Facing $9 Billion Deficit, NJ Gov. Elect Christie Seeks 15-25% Slash In Budget

I wish Governor-elect Chris Christie lots of luck in trying to convince a hostile legislature in Trenton to go along with the 15-25% cuts he's envisioning in the state budget. It would include eliminating many programs of dubious worth, and it is precisely those kinds of programs that hang on because they bring the pork home to various constituencies.

The letter was dispatched "at the request of the governor-elect's transition team" and said the deadline for responses is Jan. 6, nearly two weeks before Christie is to be sworn in. Christie, a Republican, defeated Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in last month's election and has been critical of Corzine's spending practices and budget forecasts.

The latest cuts, aimed at closing a budget gap Christie estimates at $9.5 billion, would come on top of cuts ordered by Corzine to close a $1 billion hole in the current $29 billion budget. The governor has yet to reveal those plans but expects to do so before Christmas. Corzine has also frozen "discretionary" state aid to municipalities and arts groups, forcing them to scramble to pay bills.

Mind you that Corzine claimed that the budget deficit was a fraction of the $9.5 billion, but like so many states, revenues continue falling short, and the only way to bring the state into some semblance of fiscal responsibility is to cut state spending since no one can or should expect the already highest tax burden in the nation to rise still further.

Christie also made a point to note that across the board reductions should not be taken, and instead that entire programs should be zeroed out of the budget. That means that some programs should disappear, but Richard Codey and his fellow Democrats aren't going to sit back and accept such drastic cuts, even if the state's dire fiscal situation demands nothing less.

More Evidence Obama Was Keen On NJ Governor's Race

Now that the election is in the past, the truth is coming out over how much the White House sought to do all it could within its power to keep a Democrat in charge in Trenton.

In an interview, Codey (D-Essex) detailed a series of summer phone calls, meetings and the results of a confidential poll that nearly threw New Jersey’s governor’s race into the type of turmoil last seen when then-Sen. Robert Torricelli dropped his reelection bid in final weeks of the 2002 campaign.

Codey made his comments hours after Corzine conceded defeat in Tuesday’s election. He previously refused to discuss it, saying he did not want to affect the outcome of the race. His account was confirmed by other key players, including Torricelli, who advised Corzine during the campaign.

Corzine’s camp and the White House declined to comment.

Codey said he got a call from the White House a week after Vice President Joe Biden appeared at Corzine’s poorly attended primary night kickoff rally in West Orange in June.

"They wanted to talk about what’s going on with the governor’s race," he said. "They would call me every week, every two weeks."

By July, Codey said there was growing concern from the president’s advisers as Corzine’s polls declined even as he poured money into anti-Christie ads. It grew worse after 44 arrests on July 23 in a corruption and money-laundering case.

Corzine privately mused to the White House he was having second thoughts about continuing his campaign, Codey said.

"He was, mentally, as low as you can get," Codey said of Corzine, even before July 23. "Then this ... hit. It was understandable he was having a moment where he was saying ‘to hell with this.’"

Codey said White House political director Patrick Gaspard called him and expressed "great concern about the governor’s race, (Corzine’s) lack of support amongst Democrats and whether or not he would be able to overcome it. He never criticized Jon personally. But he said he was meeting with Obama and ‘the president wants to know if you might run if, in fact, Mr. Corzine got out.’ Can he tell the president ‘Yes.’"

Codey said Gaspard detailed an internal poll that showed Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Rep. Frank Pallone about the same as Corzine, but Codey leading Christie by double digits.

The White House was looking to Richard Codey as a stand in for Corzine who was cratering in the polls, but Codey was coy as to what he would do. Corzine nearly dropped out of the race because his polling was awful over the summer, but he soldiered on by throwing millions of his personal fortune into attack ads against Republican Chris Christie and Corzine convinced President Obama to back him with multiple visits into the state. Corzine ran an ad that largely featured Obama and his ties to Corzine, and later had the President tape a robocall for him in the waning days of the campaign.

The White House clearly didn't want the governorship to fall to the Republicans, and yet it did.

Scheduling His Return

Gov. Corzine is getting up and about with forearm crutches and not a walker. That's a good sign that he's getting more mobile on a daily basis. Corzine will be the one to determine when he resumes his duties as governor.

He's expected to leave the hospital in the next few days and begin recuperating at home along with the painful rehabilitation and physical therapy needed. That means three hours a day, seven days a week for the first two weeks, and then additional physical therapy for the following two to three months.

It seems that Gov. Codey has had quite a bit of experience running New Jersey, notwithstanding his prior stint as Governor after the McGreevey disaster. Corzine spent about 25% of the time out of the state, leaving Gov. Codey in charge pursuant to state law.

The practice is now in play as the governor recovers from serious car crash injuries and has turned his post over to Senate President Richard Codey.

Between his 2006 inauguration and his April 12 accident, the governor left someone else in charge 111 out of 450 days.

Corzine made official trips to Washington, to Asia for a trade mission and meetings with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The multimillionaire governor also spent long weekends in Europe and the Hamptons on Long Island, and took longer vacations in Telluride, Colorado, Italy and Saint Bart's.

In other words, Codey has gotten quite comfortable being in charge during Corzine's recuperation since he's had so much experience during the past year.

Of course, the questions about how New Jersey governors are transported around the state continues. Some wonder why he didn't use a state helicopter, or why the vehicle was being driven at an excessive speed (91 mph in the moments before the crash).

I don't want to limit the governor and how he or she travels around the state. New Jersey, like New York, has had scandals over how frequently the governor used the state helicopters, and to what end. That's limited how some have used that mode of transportation. Weather also limits how and when you can fly, so driving will continue to be a major way the governor gets around the state.

However, rules over how fast the drivers can take the governor will probably be revised - and requirements that all occupants in the vehicle be wearing seat belts will probably be strictly enforced, even against the habitual offender Corzine (who should have known better given that he was among the sponsors of more stringent seat belt laws).

According to an Associated Press survey of governor travel policies nationwide, drivers - who are state law enforcement officials - are expected to obey traffic and safety laws and not to speed or use warning lights because their bosses are running late or want to get somewhere quicker.

However, drivers are typically allowed to speed and use flashers in emergencies. In some states, they are allowed to speed to avoid security risks that may come with standing idle in traffic.

New Jersey Attorney General Stuart Rabner on Thursday convened an independent panel to examine the state police detail that drives and protects the governor.

``What they'll review as part of their post-incident assessment is the background, the qualifications, the record, the work experience in security protection and the training of the overall operation,'' said G. Michael Verden, a retired secret service agent who specializes in executive protection with Hillard Heintze LLC in Chicago.

``The end game is you never want to see this incident occur again,'' he said.

After all, the general public is regularly chastised to slow down and that you save only a few minutes by speeding, along with increasing the possibility of accidents. Those same guidelines apply to a governor and his staff when not heading to an emergency situation.

UPDATE:
It appears that Corzine will be released from the hospital tomorrow afternoon, and will head to the governor's mansion to recuperate, though his return to work isn't set.

Gov. Jon Corzine will leave Cooper University Hospital tomorrow, his spokesman, Anthony Coley said tonight.

It is unclear, though, when the governor plans to resume his official duties.

Doctors expect to discharge Corzine from the hospital in Camden at about 1:30 p.m., Coley said. He has been hospitalized for 19 days, since being rushed there by medevac helicopter from the scene of a devastating car crash on the Garden State Parkway.

Corzine is expected to be moved to Drumthwacket, the governor's official residence in Princeton, where he will spend the next several months undergoing intensive rehabilitation. The governor was up and walking this weekend on forearm crutches, Coley said.

Upgraded

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has been upgraded from critical condition to stable condition. He's now eating regular food and doctors expect that he'll be released from the hospital in about a week. He's facing months of rehabilitation and a painful recovery as the numerous broken ribs meant a much longer stay in the ICU than first anticipated.

Corzine wont resume his duties as governor while in the hospital. That means that Gov. Codey gets to play governor for just a bit longer.

Corzine's Condition Remains Critical: Questions Swirl Over Seatbelt Usage

Gov. Corzine continues to remain sedated and is using a breathing tube to assist with breathing because of the pain due to the broken ribs, sternum, and shoulder. He underwent a second surgical procedure today to debride the wound (to prevent infections). He's in critical but stable condition and his vital signs are improving slowly. Doctors believe the tube will remain in place through Monday.

State troops say they've located the red pickup truck that they believe precipitated the accident. They've questioned the driver and no charges will be forthcoming. The driver had no idea that the accident had occurred.

State Police located and interviewed the driver of the red pickup truck they say set off the chain reaction on the Garden State Parkway that led to the crash of Gov. Jon Corzine's SUV. They have not charged him and say he did not realize he had caused an accident.

The driver, a 20-year-old Little Egg Harbor resident, told investigators he saw a white Dodge pick-up swerve into a black SUV but left the scene because he did not think he was involved.

State Police did not identify the driver, but Little Egg Harbor police said it was Kenneth Potts Jr., a restaurant worker at Harrahs Casino. He could not be reached for comment this afternoon.

Meanwhile, if you've been living in the US for the past couple of decades, the push to criminalize the failure to wear seatbelts has grown from a handful of states to one that is prevalent nationwide. Seat belt usage is up, but there are still people who choose not to wear them.

According to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of traffic fatalities in New Jersey is well below the national average. And a record-high 90 percent of drivers and front-seat passengers in New Jersey wore seat belts in 2006, the eighth-highest rate in the country. (The state of Washington is No. 1, at 96 percent.)

Statistics show that 46 percent of passenger vehicle deaths in New Jersey in 2005 involved people who were not wearing seat belts, according to state police records.

While mandatory seat belt laws were strenuously opposed in many quarters when states first started enacting them in the mid-1980s, they are now so much a part of the culture that even toddlers know to buckle up before a car starts moving.

So what might cause Governor Corzine and the others to break the law in such a risky way?

“Even the worst nervous Nellie in the world has some glimmer of a sense of invulnerability, and all of us have some of that,” said Dr. Tony Stern, a psychiatrist in Westchester County, who admits he does not wear a seat belt “100 percent of the time” himself. “And someone who is a doer and an alpha male and a multimillionaire is going to have more than the average sense of invincibility.”

The former governor of New York, Mario M. Cuomo, said in a phone interview yesterday that he, like Mr. Corzine, preferred to sit in the front seat. And while he initially found seat belts somewhat uncomfortable, he said he wore them out of a sense of duty, given the fact that he had signed the nation’s first mandatory seat belt law in 1984.

“I remember the violent opposition it received,” Mr. Cuomo said. “People didn’t like the idea of being forced to strap themselves in. When we adopted the seat belt law, it was the most unpopular thing I had done as governor.”

In New Jersey, which passed its own law shortly afterward, the use of seat belts has been on the rise. The rate was 74 percent in 2000, when New Jersey made the law stricter, allowing police officers to pull over vehicles to issue seat belt citations. Previously, they could issue such citations only if the car had been pulled over for a separate offense.

About half the states now have the stricter form of the law, and organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a nonprofit group, are pushing for the rest to follow suit.

I don't get it. Wearing a seatbelt can and does save thousands of lives every year and yet people find all kinds of reasons to not wear one. New Jersey was at the forefront of imposing strict seat belt laws. Corzine knew these laws were on the books and ignored them.

The question that people are asking is why the driver of Corzine's vehicle - a state trooper - didn't require Corzine to be strapped in. It's a good question and I'm sure that the driver is probably second guessing himself over that as well. However, given that this law has been on the books for years, there's no excuse for Corzine to need to be reminded about being in a car without wearing a seatbelt.

Others blogging: Tigerhawk, Blue Crab Boulevard, Rand Simberg.

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Corzine's Health Prognosis Updated Following Car Crash

Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to make a full recovery, but it's going to be a long and painful one. He's physically a wreck with 12 broken ribs, broken sternum, broken verterbrae, broken collarbone and compound fracture to the leg. It will be a couple of months before he's able to walk normally.

They've got him sedated and on a ventilator to assist with breathing which is understandable considering all the damage to his chest. He's going to be in a ton of pain for weeks to come.

Doctors say he's lucky to be alive.

Corzine faces several more operations to fix the compound fracture to his leg.

Ostrum said a rod was inserted in Corzine's leg, and additional operations were scheduled for Saturday and Monday. The injuries were not considered life-threatening, but it would be at least three to six months before Corzine could walk normally, he said.

''He's got a pretty significant rehab in front of him,'' Ostrum said.

Former Governor and State Senator Richard Codey is acting governor for New Jersey until Gov. Corzine is able to resume his duties. Codey has been in this position before - assuming the role of governor when Jim McGreevey was forced to step down over the hiring scandal of Golan Cipel.

UPDATE:
There is some question as to whether Corzine was wearing a seatbelt in the SUV.

Sources tells WNBC.com that Corzine, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the SUV, was not wearing a seat belt; the state police could not confirm that, but Corzine typically did not wear seat belts. A volunteer EMT who happened to be near by said that Corzine was moaning when he saw him: James Freund told the NY Times, "It looked like the car made a direct impact on the left guard rail and kind of hopped over it.” Another witness told the Daily News that Corzine's legs were "hanging out the window" and that Corzine was screaming, "My leg! My leg!"

UPDATE:
According to the latest presser at the hospital, the answer is that he wasn't. The situation appears to be more serious than they were letting on last night and that Corzine may be wheelchair bound for at least the next six months while he recovers.

Corzine is in critical but stable condition, with more than a dozen broken bones -- including 12 ribs and a femur protruding through the skin of his thigh. A doctor said he is heavily sedated and lucky to be alive.

Hospital sources who did not want to be named say Corzine is in worse condition than is publicly acknowledged, and that he's likely to be in a wheelchair for at least six months.

At the press conference, Dr. Steven Ross, head of the trauma unit at at Cooper, said Corzine is unable to speak.

That last part is due to the fact that he's on a breathing tube to assist with breathing due to the numerous broken ribs and sternum that would make it extremely painful to breath on his own.


Others covering Corzine's accident and recovery: Rhymes with Right, The New Editor, Washington Wire (who notes that Corzine wasn't wearing his seatbelt when the accident occurred), Enlighten NJ (who notes that Corzine is lucky to be alive), Blue Crab Boulevard, Outside the Beltway, Fausta, and Blue Jersey.

Parenthetical Remarks notes that Corzine is the third elected New Jersey governor in a row to break their leg in an accident (Whitman broke her leg while skiing, and McGreevey broke his while taking a nighttime walk on a beach).

UPDATE:
Trackposted to Perri Nelson's Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Is It Just Me?, Adam's Blog, Maggie's Notebook, basil's blog, Stuck On Stupid, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, , Conservative Cat, Jo's Cafe, Pursuing Holiness, Rightlinx, Allie Is Wired, Faultline USA, third world county, stikNstein... has no mercy, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, , The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Gone Hollywood, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

UPDATE:
Corzine was in a 2-car caravan and the second vehicle, with two state troopers on board, stopped to provide assistance to Gov. Corzine and the other occupants rather than give chase to the red pickup truck that did not stop after causing the sequence of events leading to the crash.