NEWS > 05 December 2006

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Reuters - USA
05 December 2006

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Muslim NY police analyst sues

Muslim police anti-terror analyst sued New York City on Tuesday, claiming a former CIA official sent hundreds of racist e-mails, including one that said "burning the hate-filled Koran" should be seen as "a public service."

The unnamed analyst -- employed by the New York police department's intelligence division -- was subject to "almost daily, virulent anti-Muslim and anti-Arab harassment" in his job monitoring extremist Web sites to identify threats, according to the suit filed in Manhattan federal court.

Almost all of the e-mails came from Bruce Tefft, a former CIA terrorism expert who was contracted to the New York police department as an adviser in 2002 and who sent frequent electronic briefings to city workers on anti-terror strategy.

"Someone would have to be blind, stupid or ignorant to think Islam is a religion (as opposed to a fascist political ideology)," Tefft wrote in 2005, according to the suit.

Connie Pankratz, a spokeswoman for the city's law department, said it is "aware of the case and reviewing the legal documents."

Paul Browne, police department spokesman, said that when the department learned the analyst had filed a complaint more than a year ago it took appropriate action.

"We took immediate action to block his e-mails, followed by a cease and desist letter to the individual and his employer, a consulting firm," Browne said.

Other e-mails that Tefft wrote in 2005 said that "burning the hate-filled Koran should be viewed as a public service at the least," calling it one of the "10 most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries."

The analyst, an Egyptian who became a U.S. citizen in 1990, was also subject to harassing notes, jokes and racist comments from the police department staff, including one remark that "Muslims should be driving hot dog carts, not working in law enforcement."

Ilann Maazel, the analyst's lawyer, said his client is still working in the department's cyber unit and that Tefft is still sending e-mails to department members, but that his client was no longer receiving them.

Multiple complaints that the analyst made between 2002 and 2005 went ignored, Maazel said.

"The question is how can so many e-mails be sent to so many people for so many years and no one did anything to stop it," he said.

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Article sourced from

Reuters - USA05 December 2006

Muslim NY police analyst sues

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Reuters - USA
05 December 2006