New York Police Department commissioner Ray Kelly reacted with anger this week to the revelation that FBI Director Robert Mueller did not inform him about a recently foiled Al Qaeda bomb plot.
According to the Daily News, Muller's agents waited a full week before briefing city cops.
'We can’t be treated like just any other city,' fumed Kelly on Thursday. 'We had 14 plots here. We had almost 3,000 people killed just five blocks from City Hall. We had another attack in 1993. We’re different.'
'I’m not looking for a call from the FBI director,' clarified Kelly, 'I’m looking for information as quickly as possible for New York City.'
Word of the failed Al Qaeda bomb plot surfaced last week, but the FBI didn’t inform NYPD top brass about it until Monday, an inexcusable delay critics contend.
'That’s a week,' Kelly fumed. 'And in the biggest terrorist target of the country.'
Kelly, who describes Mueller as a personal friend, was anxious to underline he did blame the FBI director personally for the delay in supplying details on how Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, who was killed by a CIA drone, planned to bring down a U.S. bound jetliner with an underwear bomb.
'The federal government verified that there was a threat on a Monday and didn’t provide the specific information to us for a week. That’s what I was complaining about,' Kelly underlined.
The FBI has not commented publicly on the scrap with the commissioner, but a recently retired agent told the Daily News that Kelly is crying wolf.
'For the NYPD to complain that it wasn’t singled out for special treatment seems childish on their end,' the agent reportedly said.
Kelly's dissatisfaction over the matter later prompted Senator Chuck Schumer to ask Mueller at a Senate panel if a rift had developed between the agencies.
Mueller denied this and added, 'As I told Ray, he’s always welcome to call.'
In response to this an unimpressed Schumer told Mueller to give Kelly a call 'for the continued good operation.'
5 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Scrivner | May 21, 2012, 01:00 PM EDT
Perhaps the FBI believes that New Yorkers don't wear underware, therefore there was no real threat from this kind of plot.
Murph46 | May 19, 2012, 12:31 PM EDT
Way to go current administration,at least we haven't sold this group guns -yet!
PhlutiePhan | May 19, 2012, 11:57 AM EDT
As Bill Clinton bemused, "It all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is". Mueller has an expired ten year term. He is on a short extension, I presume dependent on who wins the election. If Romney wins, he is gone. If Obama wins, he wants another ten year term. The FBI has a political agenda. Just look at how the facts were "riddled" in the JFK, RFK, and MLK investigations. Now even as modern, the FBI crime lab cannot tell the difference between which one yelled for help between Martin and Zimmerman. There is clear sound for two and a half seconds with no interference according to released documents. They were told by higher ups to "round up the usual suspects" as Claude Rains would say.
shop tom | May 19, 2012, 11:34 AM EDT
Another example of the incompetency that riddles the Obama administration. The sooner these idiots are gone, the better.
Seanmor | May 19, 2012, 10:18 AM EDT
The federal security agencies should cooprate to the fullest with Commissioner Kelly, whose force is doing a magnificant job in protecting the nation's largest (and greatest) city from the destructive terrorism of our enemies. Peter King is also deserving of the support of his fellow congressmen and Obama's administration for his tireless efforts to keep the nation safe.