WHAT KELLY
CONSTRUCTED
BRATTON WILL
DEMOLISH
Bill Bratton:
determined to recast
NYPD to his
liking
TAGS:
NYPD COMMISSIONER BRATTON, NYPD INTELLIGENCE DIVISION, ZONE ASSESSMENT UNIT
DISBANDED,
FORMER
COMMISH RAY KELLY, BLOOMBERG’S INTELLIGENCE TRIO
COHEN,
DADDDARIO, SANCHEZ, BRAIN DRAIN,
BRATTON
SIDEKICK JOHN MILLER,
De
BLASIO AND BRATTON PLAYING POLITICS
(Wednesday April 16, 2014, New
York City) If his twenty years away from
New York City policing did anything for Bill Bratton it was to make him an even
shrewder politician then he was. In his
latest version as NYPD Commissioner, Bratton 2.0, he has already staked his
claim to plots on the political landscape that his predecessor Ray Kelly never
knew existed and, even if he had, he would have paid them little attention. This early on in his second tenure as the
Police Commissioner has already provided a fairly clear picture of where he
intends to direct the NYPD. Perhaps he
has just become so enamored of himself that he actually is acting with
objective intelligence, logical and practical fact rather than what appears to
some as just simple, blatant , dirty politics.
It has also become evident in the last few weeks the deep seated
animosity Bratton has against Kelly and that is surely more akin to jealousy;
Bratton is no Kelly and never will be.
That Bratton has seemingly gone out of his way to trash Kelly in very
public forums reveals Bratton’s trite, vindictive, undisciplined sides that
work in tandem with his outsized ego and sense of absolute authority. Whatever Bratton once was as a Police
Commissioner is long gone and only the sharp, pointy skeletal fragments remain.
On the same day a video clip
was aired on CNN and the story of it widely reported in other news outlets showing
the second in command of Al Qaeda, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, deliver a fiery speech
before an audience estimated to number near 100 hard core zealots, Bratton
decided to dismantle one of the off-shoot Intelligence Division Units that was
constructed by Kelly in the wake of September 11, 2001. Despite the Unit’s policies, protocols and
tactics having been vindicated in two separate court cases, Commissioner
Bratton thought it would be better to “heal” what he referred to as “poor
relationships” between members of the Muslim, Islamic, Arabic and Middle East
communities within the Five Boroughs and the NYPD. There are two other lawsuits pending that
question the legality of the activities of the Zone Assessment Unit, formerly
known as the Demographics Unit although those very same questions have been
answered in the affirmative, not only in courtrooms, but by legal scholars and
constitutional lawyers.
The video clip that was
released on several radical Islamic web sites is now being analyzed frame by
frame by the CIA and NSA. High placed sources in the intelligence community
agree that it is authentic. As
al-Wuhayshi grows angrier during his tirade he makes the comment, "We must
eliminate the cross. [...] The bearer of the cross is America!" According to intelligence sources, it was
unusual to have so many high ranking al Qaeda members travel to one place for
their conclave and that it has been “quite a while” since this much “chatter” from
the terrorist organization has been accessible.
When Michael Bloomberg
succeeded Rudy Giuliani he chose Ray Kelly to serve as his Police
Commissioner. Kelly, whose apartment is
in Battery Park City just blocks from where the Twin Towers once stood,
realized that he would need to develop and implement new, novels strategies and
tactics for the Police Department he commanded now that the terrorist had brought their war
to our City. Kelly was determined to insure, as best he could, that the City
and her people are never surprised such as they were on 9-11-2001. Kelly was convinced that all the federal and
military intelligence agencies were worthless; staffed by pension-padding,
disinterested, disgruntled employees still preparing to fight the next world
war with the USSR. Kelly went to the
Mayor with his plan to organize a new Intelligence Division dedicated to the
external threats to our City. NYPD
already had an Intelligence Unit but their primary focus was on gangs, gun and
drug runners and organized crime. That Unit would remain largely unchanged;
they would be enfolded into this new Intel Division. As the plans were
developed for this revamped Intel Division the PD and City lawyers were in on
it from the very beginning. All involved
realized they might be treading a fine line between their vision and the
constitutional rights afforded to all who live here.
As all the details were being
hammered out Kelly brought two veteran Intelligence Officers to oversee his new
Division. Both David Cohen and Richard Daddario were long time CIA Officers and
were more than eager to come to New York and be a part of this new Division. Kelly was also recruiting in the from the Ivy Leagues
colleges for computer scientists, analysts of every stripe as well as seeking
out more people to work as linguists since some of the languages spoken by
terrorists are not commonly taught in colleges here. Now,
with Cohen installed as the Deputy
Commissioner of Intelligence and Daddario serving as the Deputy Commissioner
for Counterterrorism the Division began to take shape, grow and go on to be an
important component in the array of Intelligence gathering and analysis
deployed throughout the City. Another
well respected and highly regarded CIA Officer joined the Division at the request
of Cohen and then CIA Director William Tenet allowed Larry Sanchez to work with
the NYPD. It was Sanchez who
orchestrated many of the operations of the Zone Assessment Unit. It should be noted that the Intelligence
Division created under Kelly stands as the premier Unit of its type and is the
model for cities from coast to coast and abroad as well.
So, with the departure of
Bloomberg and a new Mayor in City Hall the entire “brain trust” of the
Intelligence Division resigned. It is
always customary for some officials such as the NYPD Commissioner to offer his
resignation whenever there is a change of Administration. Their resignations were expected but the men
and women working in that particular Unit, conducting various details and
operations did not really believe that de Blasio and Bratton would ever be so
foolish as to actually disband one their operational intelligence tools. But, sadly, they were wrong. That is precisely what happened.
One might now wonder who will
fill the void atop the Intelligence Division and what will become of the
Detectives and Officers who were assigned to the Zone Assessment Unit. As has been reported and confirmed by a
ranking member of the Intel Division, those personnel have already been “reassigned”
by the man who replaced the powerhouse trio of Kelly, Cohen and Daddario,
former TV News journalist and longtime Bratton side kick, John Miller. Miller is now in command of
the Intelligence Division and, as several members of the Division commented, “There
will be more profound changes around here.
Having Miller as Deputy Commissioner for Intel is an insult to all of us
who have been here since day one. Miller
is a PR (public relations) guy, not an intelligence expert”.
While Ray Kelly worked 12 – 14
hours for most of his tenure from 2002 to 2013, Bill Bratton spent most of that
same time as a high priced public speaker and “consultant”. He was able to cash in on his police
experiences and was handsomely rewarded for his efforts in the private
sector. Ray Kelly’s agenda, it is fair
to say, was a bit more urgent. The threat of further terrorist attacks haunted
most New Yorkers for the years immediately following 2001. As the years passed it seemed that much of the City had moved on
and become complacent and aggravated by some of the new security restrictions
that have altered large swathes of Midtown and other sectors throughout the
City. Many began to complain about how
the City was being transformed into a “surveillance state” as more and more
closed circuit cameras began sprouting up all over the City. Activists asserted that the rights of the
people were being trampled but, as has been stated already and recounted in
many sources over the last decade, that was not and never has been the
case.
Complacent, aggravated, inconvenienced, frustrated or whatever the public sentiments were they were secondary to providing them with safety and security. The public, civilians can afford to feel those emotions while the men and women in the trenches, the members of NYPD who now keep tighter grips on some of our landmarks, government buildings, the Wall Street Area, just to name a few, have remained ever vigilant. Constant vigilance is our most effective weapon. With the disbanding of the Zoning Assessment Unit we have just lost a layer of protection and prevention for no reason other than it was causing some alarm in certain segments of the City. De Blasio and Bratton will cave to pressure from their “constituents” but, if, God forbid, we suffer another attack, there will be hell to pay. Let’s hope we never find out just how much more vulnerable we are today than we were yesterday. Al Qaeda is most certainly monitoring developments here, we remain their primary target. We should also hope that John Miller is a fast learner.
Complacent, aggravated, inconvenienced, frustrated or whatever the public sentiments were they were secondary to providing them with safety and security. The public, civilians can afford to feel those emotions while the men and women in the trenches, the members of NYPD who now keep tighter grips on some of our landmarks, government buildings, the Wall Street Area, just to name a few, have remained ever vigilant. Constant vigilance is our most effective weapon. With the disbanding of the Zoning Assessment Unit we have just lost a layer of protection and prevention for no reason other than it was causing some alarm in certain segments of the City. De Blasio and Bratton will cave to pressure from their “constituents” but, if, God forbid, we suffer another attack, there will be hell to pay. Let’s hope we never find out just how much more vulnerable we are today than we were yesterday. Al Qaeda is most certainly monitoring developments here, we remain their primary target. We should also hope that John Miller is a fast learner.
