NYPD informant: I was told to 'bait' Muslims

BY ADAM GOLDMAN

AND MATT APUZZO

The Associated Press

A paid informant for the NYPD's intelligence unit was under orders to "bait" Muslims into saying inflammatory things as he lived a double life, snapping pictures inside mosques and collecting the names of innocent people attending study groups on Islam, he told The Associated Press.

Shamiur Rahman, 19, an American of Bangladeshi descent who has now denounced his work as an informant, said police told him to embrace a strategy called "create and capture." He said it involved creating a conversation about jihad or terrorism, then capturing the response to send to the NYPD. He earned as much as $1,000 a month and goodwill from the police after a string of minor marijuana arrests.

"We need you to pretend to be one of them," Rahman recalled the police telling him. "It's street theater."

Rahman said he now believes his work as an informant against Muslims in New York was "detrimental to the Constitution." After he disclosed to friends details about his work for the police -- and after he told the police that he had been contacted by the AP -- he stopped receiving text messages from his NYPD handler, "Steve," and his handler's NYPD phone number was disconnected.

Rahman's account shows how the NYPD unleashed informants on Muslim neighborhoods, often without specific targets or criminal leads. Much of what Rahman said represents a tactic the NYPD has denied using. The AP corroborated Rahman's account through arrest records and weeks of text messages between Rahman and his police handler.

Informants are a central component of the NYPD's programs to monitor Muslim neighborhoods since 9/11. Police have eavesdropped inside Muslim businesses, trained video cameras on mosques and collected license plates of worshipers. Informants who trawl the mosques tell police what the imam says and provide lists of attendees, even when there's no evidence they committed a crime.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday. He has denied widespread NYPD spying, saying police only follow leads.