DA Candidate Would Launch Counter-Terrorism Bureau

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'SYNCHRONIZE INVESTIGATIVE POWER': Leslie Crocker Snyder, with Detectives Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino (left) and other union officials looking on, details her plan if elected Manhattan District Attorney to create a counter-terrorism bureau to improve investigations in areas like money-laundering.

Manhattan District Attorney candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder Aug. 12 pledged to create a specialized counterterrorism bureau in that office if elected in November, as Detectives Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino stood by her side in support.

City Needs 'Innovation'

"Preventing today's terrorist threats requires innovation, breadth of vision, speed of action, extensive resources, and management of those resources that can be achieved only by synchronizing all elements of investigative power in a single bureau," Ms. Snyder said. "As District Attorney, I will bring to bear experts who have experience in investigating all aspects of counter terrorism and pro-actively work to share and coordinate vital information that will help us go after terrorist organizations and individuals at their core."

Under her plan, an Assistant District Attorney with the necessary security clearance to access classified information to prosecute cases, such as terrorists' money laundering, would head the counter-terrorism bureau. This new bureau would bring together otherwise disparate, disconnected investigations.

Prosecutors would link databases across units within the DA's Office to ensure that information is shared. ADAs from typically isolated units would be brought together for comprehensive briefings to foster coordinated information sharing.

Mr. Palladino said, "History has shown that investigative failures are inevitable when one works in isolation. When it comes to fighting terrorism, sharing information and coordinating the work of multiple agencies is essential. Judge Snyder's innovative plan for a counter-terrorism bureau will bring a new level of coordination to the field and be a monumental step towards preventing terrorist attacks in New York."

Special Training for ADAs

Her blueprint for the counter-terrorism bureau calls for it to be staffed with specially trained ADAs. Expert financial investigators and paralegals to examine and analyze documents and transactions would be deployed, and the bureau would establish formal, ongoing information-sharing relationships with all of the agencies operating in and around New York County that have responsibility for any component of counter-terrorism.

"It is an excellent idea in the post- 9/11 world," Mr. Palladino said on the steps of City Hall. "Terrorists have a clear mission to kill Americans and kill the American economy."

Mr. Palladino dubbed 2009 "the year of the woman," predicting Ms. Snyder would defeat her two male opponents, Richard Aborn and Cyrus Vance Jr., to become Manhattan's first female chief prosecutor, succeeding Robert M. Morgenthau, who is retiring at the end of the year after nine terms in office. All three candidates are former prosecutors who worked for Mr. Morgenthau.

Ms. Snyder, who served as a Supreme Court Judge, lost to Mr. Morgenthau in a 2005 Democratic primary. Mr. Morgenthau has endorsed Mr. Vance.