Gross.
(The Record) — President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser wasn’t referring to a controversial surveillance program when he praised the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism efforts last week, a White House official said.
The clarification of remarks by John Brennan was issued Tuesday evening as national Muslim and Arab groups expressed frustration with what they described as mixed messages from the Obama administration over NYPD surveillance operations in New Jersey and New York.
Brennan on Friday praised the agency for its anti-terror efforts, saying he has “full confidence that the NYPD is doing things consistent with the law” — comments that some observers believed represented an endorsement of police tactics by the Obama administration.
“John never approved of described press accounts of alleged NYPD surveillance,” a White House official said on Tuesday. “In his remarks, he wasn’t referring to the NYPD surveillance. Rather, he was stating that everyone in the counterterrorism and law enforcement community must make sure we are doing things consistent with the law.”
Of course CAIR is celebrating.
