POLICE SECRETS

911 Tapes Reveal NYPD's Muslim Operation

Apartment superintendent discovers “safe house” in N.J.

After more than a year of requests, The Associated Press has received access to a 911 tape the New York Police Department has tried to keep from the public. The recording details a confused New Brunswick, N.J., building superintendent’s unwitting discovery of an NYPD safe house, used while conducting undercover surveillance on Muslims in the New York area. Following the 911 call, in which the dispatcher was just as confused as the superintendent calling, the New Brunswick police and FBI rushed to the apartment, having no idea the NYPD had been in town spying on the city’s Muslim citizens. Embarrassed, the NYPD demanded its materials back from the FBI, tried to keep the 911 tape a secret, and still will not discuss the New Jersey mission. Yet the tape offers details into the investigation, as the man on the phone describes a furniture-less apartment filled with two computers, dozens of boxes, photographs of terrorists and local buildings, and literature on Islam.