-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 7, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BLOOMBERG BRINGS MASTER SPY TO NYPD
By Greg Butterfield
New York
On Jan. 24, with the blessing of billionaire Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly appointed
ex-CIA spy chief David Cohen to the new post of deputy
commissioner of intelligence. Cohen served in the CIA for 35
years and was director of operations from 1995 to 1997,
overseeing a broad expansion of covert operations.
Kelly told the media that Cohen's appointment signaled a
"new emphasis on investigating terrorism, international
crime, drug trafficking and money laundering, as well as
sharing information with the CIA, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and other law enforcement agencies around the
country and the world." (New York Times, Jan. 25)
"We've had a good intelligence division for many years,"
Kelly said, "but they are police officers. Now, in the wake
of Sept. 11, I think we need a total professional in that
position."
The NYPD's intelligence division is what used to be called
the "red squad." In recent years the division's scope has
expanded to target immigrants, labor unions and community
organizations, as well as progressive and revolutionary
groups believed to be a threat to capitalist interests.
Cohen said the NYPD could infiltrate "terrorist cells, the
way it sometimes infiltrates drug gangs and the Mafia."
One week earlier, on Jan. 16, Kelly appointed former Marine
Brig. Gen. Frank Libutti as deputy commissioner of counter-
terrorism. Libutti had previously assisted in setting up the
Bush administration's Office of Homeland Defense. In 1992-
1993, Libutti played a key role in the Pentagon invasion of
Somalia.
It's hard to imagine the appointment of two high-ranking
federal operatives to a city police department without the
direct involvement of the Pentagon and the Bush White House.
And what of media mogul Bloomberg? He spent nearly $75
million of his fortune to win the 2001 mayoral election.
(Associated Press, Jan. 23)
Since taking office Jan. 1, the new Republican mayor has
been playing "good cop"-appointing Democrats to his cabinet
and reaching out to African American politicians, labor
unions and other groups that were shut out of City Hall for
the eight years of Rudolph Giuliani's reign.
But Bloomberg's affirmation of Cohen and Libutti speaks
volumes about his real agenda as Wall Street's man in City
Hall.
WHO ARE COHEN AND LIBUTTI?
Will New Yorkers be able to breathe easier with Cohen and
Libutti in town? Here's a hint: Better take a deep breath.
Police Commissioner Kelly called Cohen a "total
professional." What is Cohen's area of professional
expertise? Falsification to justify repression against
groups.
According to CIA-agent-turned-whistle-blower Ralph McGehee,
"David Cohen is on record by even a CIA internal
investigation of gross manipulation of intelligence to
support policy." ("CIA's War On Islam Part II," Nov. 24,
1996)
Cohen's long and checkered career began with Vietnam, says
McGehee. He generated reports overestimating the likelihood
of a U.S. victory to aid those in Washington who wanted to
prolong the war.
Cohen turned up in Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s, where
he participated in Rome's and Washington's war against the
Italian left and the Cold War against the socialist bloc.
"As a senior Intelligence Directorate Officer he directed
the April 1985 assessment claiming KGB involvement in Ali
Agca's 1981 attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II,"
McGehee wrote. "The report was so biased that the CIA itself
criticized it in its July 1985 'Cowey Report.'" ("FBI vs.
CIA Abroad," Aug. 23, 1996)
And what of Brig. Gen. Libutti? In Somalia he served as a
liaison between the Pentagon and Big Oil companies like
Conoco, which had contracts to divvy up that African
country's natural wealth before a civil war interfered with
their plans. These companies desperately wanted- and still
want-to see a compliant, pro-U.S. puppet regime installed in
Mogadishu.
An article in the Jan. 18, 1993, Los Angeles Times reported:
"In its in-house magazine last month, Conoco reprinted
excerpts from a letter of commendation for [Conoco
executive] Marchand written by U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Frank
Libutti, who has been acting as military aid to U.S. envoy
Robert B. Oakley. In the letter, Libutti praised the oil
official for his role in the initial operation to land
Marines on Mogadishu's beaches in December ..."
U.S. forces reportedly killed some 10,000 Somalis during the
occupation. The troops were driven out by a mass uprising of
women, men and children in the capital.
KILLER COPS STRIKE AGAIN
Libutti and Cohen's arrival here coincides with the NYPD's
mobilization against protests at the World Economic Forum
meeting from Jan. 31-Feb. 4.
Since the WEF's meeting was announced last fall, police
officials have been on a global junket, visiting Davos,
Genoa, Seattle and other cities where cops have provoked
clashes with anti-capitalist, anti-globalization activists.
Local television broadcasts have shown police in body armor
"practicing" for a battle.
Protest organizers, including the International ANSWER
coalition, say they are planning militant, peaceful
demonstrations outside the meeting. They warn that all the
hype about violence can be to set the stage for police
violence against unarmed protesters.
The same day spymaster Cohen was installed at Police Plaza,
a Dominican worker was shot dead by cops in Washington
Heights, a predominately Latino neighborhood. Police claimed
that repair worker Juan Mendez was carrying a sawed-off
shotgun and fled when plainclothes cops approached him. But
not one person-witnesses or police-has said that Mendez
threatened anyone. The cops chased Mendez into a parking
garage, and shot him through the heart.
A week earlier-on the same day Kelly appointed Libutti-cops
shot and killed a Haitian man, Georgy Louisgene, in
Brooklyn. They said they shot the young pharmacy worker
because he was "acting erratically" and refused to drop a
carving knife and stick.
The NYPD's message seems clear: Rudolph Giuliani may not be
mayor, but there will be no let-up in the police war against
communities of color that reached new heights during his
tenure.
The big-business media made much out of Mayor Bloomberg
attending a Martin Luther King Day commemoration sponsored
by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network-an event
that Giuliani pointedly boycotted. Many people see the new
administration's willingness to meet with community leaders
as a hopeful and necessary change. But it can't be forgotten
that Bloomberg hasn't spoken out against the NYPD war on
youths of color.
Critics charge the mayor is trying to butter up labor unions
in preparation for big budget cuts and layoffs ahead, while
bailing out his Wall Street associates. When workfare
workers rallied at City Hall Jan. 16 demanding the real city
jobs they'd been promised, Bloomberg said he couldn't
guarantee it.
On Jan.18 his administration vowed to fight a court ruling
allowing homeless people to sleep on the steps of a church-
while a new police "quality of life" initiative is hounding
the homeless on city streets and subways.
Bloomberg announced he'd march in the official St. Patrick's
Day Parade, despite its exclusion of lesbians and gays-and
despite his campaign promises to gay groups.
Poverty, unemployment and homelessness are growing day by
day in New York. It will take a united fight-back movement
of workers, poor people and students to push back the new
axis of repression running from City Hall to Police Plaza
and win jobs, housing and social justice for all New
Yorkers.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
------------------
This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service.
To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
