Wall Street Journal - Emails Show NYC Backing Of Mosque

By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL And SUMATHI REDDY
Wall Street Journal
 
The chairman of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission allegedly wanted "political cover" before denying landmark status to a building situated on the site of the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero, giving critics ammunition in their legal quest to stop the project, records released Thursday showed.

The recordssought by the project's opponents and released by City Hallshow members of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration working very closely with the organizers of the project, known as Park51, to combat public opposition and navigate various governmental hurdles. One city official ghost-wrote a letter for the project's organizers.

Aides to Mr. Bloomberg, an outspoken champion of the organizers' right to build the mosque, said the slew of emails reflects the typical back-and-forth between government officials and members of the community. The project's opponents said the records show the Bloomberg administration was in cahoots with the organizers. The records, they allege, raise serious questions about the legitimacy of the Landmarks Preservation Commission's Aug. 3 vote, which paved the way for the project to rise two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. . .

. . .  Brett Joshpe, counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, one of the groups that sought the documents and is suing the city, said Ms. Friedman's email is telling.

"Our allegation all along has been that politics tainted this process and that the Landmarks decision was not actually based on a faithful review of the architectural or historical value of the building but based upon political influences," Mr. Joshpe said.

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