WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Monday that it has no control over how the New York Police Department spends millions of dollars in White House grants that helped pay for NYPD programs that put entire U.S. Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance. In New York, the police commissioner said he wouldn't apologize.
The White House has no opinion about how the grant money was spent, spokesman Jay Carney said. The Associated Press reported Monday that the White House money has paid for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods and paid for computers that stored even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons and social events.
The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist 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, known as HIDTA. It's unclear exactly how much was spent on surveillance of Muslims because the HIDTA program has little oversight.
The AP confirmed 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 that they were created and saved on HIDTA computers. The HIDTA grant program is overseen by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The White House drug policy office has no authority to direct, manage or supervise any law enforcement operations, including NYPD surveillance of Muslims, Mr. Carney said. "This is not an administration program or a White House program. This is the New York Police Department."
Mr. Carney described the Office of National Drug Control Policy as a policy office, but he did not say whether the White House sees the NYPD programs as good policy.
In New York, police commissioner Ray Kelly was unapologetic. He said some local politicians who questioned the NYPD methods were pandering to voters in upcoming elections, and that others -- including New Jersey's Republican Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Newark's Democratic Mayor Cory Booker -- were wrong to question the department.
"Not everybody is going to be happy with everything the police department does; that's the nature of our business," Mr. Kelly said. "But our primary mission, our primary goal is to keep this city safe, to save lives. That's what we're engaged in doing."
It remains unclear whether the White House knew how the NYPD was spending the grant money until inquiries were made about it last week. "We make very clear that we consider Muslim Americans partners in the effort to combat, you know, radical extremism," Mr. Carney said Monday. "I think we've made that clear again and again. And that continues to be our position."
John Brennan, Mr. Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, last year called the NYPD efforts "heroic," but would not elaborate. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department also gives grant money to the NYPD and is one of the lead federal agencies helping police build relationships with Muslims, has refused in recent months to discuss the police tactics. Tom Perez, the Justice Department's top civil rights lawyer, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the NYPD.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman lacks authority to investigate the NYPD, his spokesman said. The New York City Council also has said it has neither oversight authority nor expertise to investigate NYPD counterterrorism programs.
The American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union on Monday urged a federal investigation into White House funds paying for some NYPD counterterror activities.
First Published: February 28, 2012, 5:00 a.m.