FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2011 file photo, people pass below a New York Police Department security camera, upper left, which is above a mosque on Fulton St., in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York. Several Muslim leaders have declined invitations to the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, saying they're upset at police department efforts to infiltrate mosques and spy on Muslim neighborhoods. The imams and activists said in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they're disturbed at his response to a series of stories by The Associated Press detailing New York Police Department intelligence-gathering programs that monitored Muslim groups, businesses and houses of worship. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2011 file photo, people pass below a New York Police Department security camera, upper left, which is above a mosque on Fulton St., in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York. Several Muslim leaders have declined invitations to the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, saying they're upset at police department efforts to infiltrate mosques and spy on Muslim neighborhoods. The imams and activists said in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they're disturbed at his response to a series of stories by The Associated Press detailing New York Police Department intelligence-gathering programs that monitored Muslim groups, businesses and houses of worship. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2011 file photo, people walk past immigrant Arab businesses on Steinway Street in the Astoria neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. Several Muslim leaders have declined invitations to the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, saying they're upset at police department efforts to infiltrate mosques and spy on Muslim neighborhoods. The imams and activists said in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they're disturbed at his response to a series of stories by The Associated Press detailing New York Police Department intelligence-gathering programs that monitored Muslim groups, businesses and houses of worship. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - In a Sept. 26, 2009, file photo released by the New York City Police Department, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, center, briefs New York police officials and John O. Brennan, center left, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counter-terrorism, and Deputy New York Police Commissioner of Intelligence David Cohen, center right, on events surrounding the alleged plot to bomb New York commuter trains, at Police Headquarters in New York. Several Muslim leaders have declined invitations to the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, saying they're upset at police department efforts to infiltrate mosques and spy on Muslim neighborhoods. The imams and activists said in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they're disturbed at his response to a series of stories by The Associated Press detailing New York Police Department intelligence-gathering programs that monitored Muslim groups, businesses and houses of worship. (AP Photo/NYPD, File)
FILE - In this March 10, 2011 file photo, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The CIA said it is investigating whether the agency broke the law by helping the New York Police Department build intelligence-gathering programs that monitored life in Muslim communities. Several Muslim leaders have declined invitations to the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, saying they're upset at police department efforts to infiltrate mosques and spy on Muslim neighborhoods. they said they were disappointed by what he said after the Associated Press reported on the NYPD's efforts to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods and mosques with aggressive programs designed by a CIA officer who worked with the department after the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Activists upset at police efforts to spy on Muslims plan to skip Mayor Michael Bloomberg's annual year-end interfaith breakfast, saying Bloomberg shouldn't be defending the tactics.
The imams and activists, supported by religious leaders from a variety of faiths, said in a letter to Bloomberg that they're disturbed at his response to a series of stories by The Associated Press detailing New York Police Department intelligence-gathering programs that monitored Muslim groups, businesses and houses of worship. Bloomberg has defended the department, saying last week it doesn't take religion into account in its policing.
About a dozen people turned down invitations to Friday's breakfast but "a couple dozen" more said they plan to attend, Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said Wednesday.
The letter to Bloomberg contained the names of several dozen Muslim leaders and organizations and said they believe the police department's tactics "threaten the rights of all Americans, and deepen mistrust between our communities and law enforcement." About three dozen Jewish and Christian leaders also signed the letter, though it was unclear how many of them had been invited to the breakfast.
"Mayor Bloomberg, the extent of these civil rights violations is astonishing, yet instead of calling for accountability and the rule of law, you have thus far defended the NYPD's misconduct," the letter said.
The Muslim leaders said they appreciate the mayor's staunch support a year ago during an uproar over a planned Islamic center near the World Trade Center site. But they said they were disappointed by what he said after the AP reported on the police department's efforts to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods and mosques with aggressive programs designed by a CIA officer who worked with the department after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The stories disclosed that a team of 16 police officers speaking at least five languages was assigned to use census information and government databases to map ethnic neighborhoods in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Documents reviewed by the AP revealed that undercover police officers known as rakers visited local businesses such as Islamic bookstores and cafes, chatting up store owners to determine their ethnicities and gauge their views. They also played cricket and eavesdropped in ethnic cafes and clubs.
The AP stories also revealed that one of the CIA's most experienced clandestine operatives began working inside the police department in July as the special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence.
The CIA is prohibited from spying domestically. Its unusual partnership with the NYPD has troubled top lawmakers and prompted an internal investigation.
In October, Bloomberg defended the arrangement, saying it was necessary in a dangerous world.
"There are people trying to kill us," he said. "And if the CIA can help us I'm all for getting any information they have and then letting the police department use it as ? if it's appropriate to protect you and to protect me."
The letter noted that Muslims comprise at least 10 percent of the city's population. It said the Muslims leaders were seeking a meeting with the mayor to discuss the issues raised by the reports.
"We believe it is unequivocally wrong and fundamentally misguided to invest law enforcement resources in religious or racial profiling, rather than investigating suspicious activity," it said. "We seek your clear, unambiguous, public support for the rights and privacy of all New Yorkers, including Muslims; and a condemnation of all policies that profile and target communities and community groups solely based on their religion or the color of their skin."
It also said: "We are deeply disturbed that to date we have only heard your words of strong support for these troubling policies and violations of our rights. We are equally disturbed by (police Commissioner Raymond) Kelly's denials of what we know to be true as verified by the leaked documents."
Kelly, meanwhile, met Wednesday evening at a Bronx mosque with two imams who weren't listed on the letter and with young fans of a police department youth soccer league, whose winners were presented with a trophy.
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Read AP's previous stories and documents about the NYPD at: http://www.ap.org/nypd
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