This is Interesting
The City Council is holding hearings on the seemingly endless debate over DHS reduction is funds for counterterrorism grants to NYC. Commissioner Kelly testified before the Council and revealed an interesting tidbit involving Iran that Base10 had never heard before:

Iran has an "aggressive" spy program targeting New York City, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly warned yesterday as he protested the slashing of federal homeland-security funds.

"They [Iran] have an aggressive surveillance system, the Iranians do, and have had for a long time," Kelly said.

"The Iranians have done this in the past, but they are not going to other cities to do it. They are doing it here in New York. They are aggressively surveilling us," he added.

Kelly testified before a joint hearing of the City Council's Finance and Public Safety committees that was looking at the impact of the loss of over $80 million in funding from the federal government.

The city's top cop detailed for lawmakers 17 terrorist-related events in the city's recent past, including three incidents of Iranian diplomats spying.

In June 2002, Iranian security personnel at its U.N. mission were expelled by State Department officials after having videotaped landmarks and infrastructure.

The following November, cops caught two more people from that mission videotaping tracks and tunnels of the No. 7 subway line.

And in June 2004, the FBI caught two more security officials from Iran's U.N. mission taping landmarks and sensitive sites in the city. They also were expelled.

Just for the record, Base10 thinks Gotham is a terror target and should get a good share of federal courterterrorism money, but it seems to me that the Mayor and Police Commissioner will only be satisfied if they get all of it. What are the major cities in the US? New York, L.A., Boston, Chicago, Miami and D.C. Sure, you could make arguments for others but that's about it. Looking at it that way, figure New York should get about 20% or so?

Let's do a little math. Last years grants totalled $836 million of which Gotham got $207 million or 24.8%. This year, out of a $711 million pie, NYC got $124 million, or 17.4% of the pie. A decline certainly, but is this the security disaster that city officials are claiming? They have lost $83 million dollars in funding. The next time that city officials bemoan the loss of anti-terror funding, consider that this loss can easily be recovered by eliminating the Department of Cultural Affairs--an agency blatantly used for patronage that costs the city about $124 million annually. Isn't this the cultural capital of the world?
- posted by Base10 @ 12:53 PM