WASHINGTON - Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.
The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.
Some of that money - it is unclear exactly how much because the program has little oversight - has paid for the cars that plainclothes New York police officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons, and social events.
When New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was filled in on these efforts, his briefings were prepared on the federal program’s computers.
The Associated Press confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on computers funded by the grant. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy oversees the grant program.
The disclosure that the White House is at least partially paying for the wholesale surveillance of places where Muslims eat, shop, work, and pray complicates efforts by the Obama administration to stay out of the fray over New York’s controversial counterterrorism programs.