A recording has emerged of the moment an apartment superintendent inadvertently walked into one of the New York Police Department's supposedly top-secret anti-terrorist safe houses, heaping embarrassment on the force.During a routine inspection the superindendent, Salil Sheth, came across a sparsely furnished apartment containing pictures of terrorists, photographs of local landmarks and Moslem literature. The building supervisor called police, thinking he had stumbled upon an al-Qaeda terrorist plot.
| See something, say something. Let us be grateful for the Mr. Sheths of America. |
The telephone call, in which Mr Sheth reported the discovery to New Brunswick police, has only just been released after the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency won a year-long battle with the police department.
In it he tells police he has found ''suspicious activity'' in an apartment unit in his building.
''What's suspicious?'' the operator asks.
''Suspicious in the sense that the apartment ... has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios,'' Mr Sheth says.
''There's computer hardware, software, you know, just laying around. There's pictures of terrorists. There's pictures of our neighbouring building that they have.''
The female operator handling the call sounds just as confused and surprised as Mr Sheth.
''Really?'' she says. ''And pictures of your neighbouring buildings?''
''Yes, the Matrix building,'' Mr Sheth replies, referring to a local development company. ''There's pictures of terrorists. There's literature on the Moslem religion.''
Unaware that the police department was in town conducting an undercover operation, the FBI seized all of the material inside, creating the embarrassing situation of the NYPD having to request that the FBI return its property.The NYPD then attempted to save its blushes by asking the New Brunswick Police Department not to release the 911 tape to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, a request it initially agreed to.
The NYPD had already come under pressure after a series of other incidents prompted suggestions that its terrorism surveillance operations were infringing the civil liberties of Moslems.