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| Home Front: Politix |
| Top al-Qaeda cop quits NYPD |
| 2006-04-30 |
| One of the nation's foremost al Qaeda experts abruptly quit his new NYPD post because Commissioner Ray Kelly's top anti-terror intelligence czar launched into a foulmouthed tirade against the FBI - where the lawman had spent his career, The Post has learned. The stunning incident involving renowned former FBI agent Daniel Coleman - considered the bureau's pre-eminent authority on Osama bin Laden - came just days before he was scheduled to formally start working at the NYPD. Sources said Coleman was attending a morning briefing session at Police Headquarters at the invitation of Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence David Cohen and Deputy Commissioner of Counter-Terrorism Michael Sheehan, the two honchos who had lured him to join the NYPD's expanding global anti-terror empire. Coleman, a 32-year FBI veteran known at the bureau as "The Professor," took his seat at the conference table along with Cohen, Sheehan and several others, including a current official of the CIA, where Cohen had worked for three decades. The meeting barely started, sources say, when Cohen and Sheehan started to discuss the NYPD's anti-terror initiatives and plans. The discussion prompted Coleman to innocently ask Cohen whether he had spoken with the department's detectives on the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force who had global contacts. Cohen responded with derision and swear words, saying at first he didn't want to talk with the 150 NYPD detectives because he did not want to deal with the FBI's terror division chief, Chuck Frahm, whom he cursed out. Coleman suggested Cohen needn't attack people personally, and that Frahm was a friend and former colleague. Then Cohen really erupted, broadening his assault to include the entire bureau - railing about the "'f---ing bureau' this and the 'f---ing bureau' that, and going on about how the FBI was always withholding information," a source said. Cohen was essentially saying, "F--- the FBI, we do what we want!" the source added. After listening to the brutal diatribe, Coleman pushed his chair away from the table, calmly stood up and announced that he was resigning - before he ever technically started - and walked out. Ironically, Coleman, who declined comment, was the first FBI agent to team up with the CIA in 1995, when they created "Alex Station" to specifically zero in on bin Laden. "My guess is that this account is being peddled by someone who's unhappy about the outstanding relationships between the FBI and the NYPD at the highest levels on down," an NYPD spokesman said, adding that two top former G-men with 60 years of combined experience presently work for Cohen. An FBI spokesman said, "We continuously strive to maintain our strong working relationship with the NYPD." On Thursday, with Commissioner Kelly at his side, FBI Director William Mueller made a speech at the Hilton in Midtown that heavily emphasized the good relations between the NYPD and the bureau. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 sniff, sniff ...what's that smell? Fish? Bull plop? |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-04-30 23:23 |