To friends at a Brooklyn mosque and bookstore, he was Kamil Pasha. To the New York Police Department, the Bangladeshi man was their Muslim mole. Offering a remarkable glimpse into the police counterterrorism program, an undercover cop described in court yesterday how his bosses posted him to live and spy in an increasingly Muslim neighborhood, reports the New York Daily News. The 26-year-old cop, testifying yesterday at the trial of an alleged wanna-be bomber, said he was plucked out of the Police Academy in 2002 and transferred to the Intelligence Division for his secret mission. He received private instruction in handling weapons, self-defense and surveillance – then was given marching orders to find an apartment in an area calaled Bay Ridge using the name Kamil Pasha.
“I was told to be a member of the community, act like a citizen and hang out in the community,” the cop, whose real name is being kept secret, said in Brooklyn Federal Court. “My mission was to look out for suspicious activities, criminal activities, terrorism as well.” Pasha said he went to “network” at a mosque on Fifth Ave. and an Islamic bookstore next door where he met defendant Shahawar Matin Siraj, who is charged with conspiring to blow up a subway station. Pasha graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice before joining the police department. “The religion I was brought up on was a peaceful one,” he said. “Where in Islam does it say you can blow up a train station?”
Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/419177p-353897c.html