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New York police head says CIA officer temporarily assigned to department will leave in April
NEW YORK (AP) ' The CIA officer working as a special assistant to the New York Police Department's top intelligence officer will leave his post in April after nine months, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Friday.
The department was notified of the planned departure just weeks after the completion of an internal investigation into how the federal agency established its unprecedented collaboration with city police, Kelly said.
The Associated Press had reported a day earlier that the officer's assignment was being cut short, but at the time it wasn't clear how short or when the officer would be leaving.
Officially, the CIA has said little about the clandestine officer, what his job is or how long he was assigned to the NYPD. But several intelligence and police officials have said that he arrived in July for what was expected to be a one-year assignment.
On Friday, Kelly said that the department was notified in November the officer would leave in April, and that as far as he knew, that was when the officer was leaving.
"I don't know where that 'pulled early' comes from," Kelly said. "He was here for a period of time. It was determined in November that he was going to leave in April, which in was six months. So, he's going to be leaving, that's correct."
In October, the CIA's inspector general completed an investigation into the relationship between the CIA and NYPD after AP articles showed the NYPD collaborated with the federal spy agency to set up operations that scrutinized Muslim communities.
The investigation faulted the agency for sending an officer to New York with little oversight after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and then leaving him there too long, according to officials who have read or been briefed on the inquiry. That officer, Lawrence Sanchez, stayed at the NYPD in various capacities until 2010 and helped build programs that have angered Muslim communities and helped make the NYPD one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies.
But the investigation cleared the CIA of any wrongdoing and did not find any wrongdoing with the current operative's position at the department, which is done under a more formal arrangement, specified in writing that he works directly for the NYPD. Nevertheless, some U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns about the assignment.
The officer's name remains classified. A former station chief in Pakistan and Jordan, he is one of the CIA's most experienced spies.
His role is not entirely clear. Kelly said the new officer was working at the NYPD to help share foreign intelligence. Federal officials, however, said he was there on a management sabbatical and was not sharing intelligence.
It's unclear what his next job will be.
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Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo in Washington contributed to this report.
