Yesterday New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ripped Ray Kelly a new one for the riding around NJ like a cowboy, spying on suspicious Muslims (and with the NYPD, they're all suspicious). "The NYPD seems to have that they’re the masters of the universe, they think that their jurisdiction is the world," Christie declared, adding, "9/11 was not prevented because law enforcement agencies weren't talking to each other: They were being selfish, they were being provincial, they were being paranoid, and they were being arrogant." This morning Bloomberg fired back, insisting that Newark and NJ was appraised of the NYPD's controversial "Demographics Unit" operations in their back yard.

"We have an agreement with the state of New Jersey signed by I think it was Governor Codey, in terms of helping them—because it's a regional problem—prevent terrorism," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio interview with John Gambling. "And we also have an agreement as to what would happen if we had to respond, and we'd do it jointly." It's true; previous governor Richard Codey (who took over for Governor James McGreevey) gave the NYPD permission in 2005. But the AP found the NYPD didn't actually start the surveillance program until 2007 (as far as we know). By that time Corzine was in office. And Christie maintains that while he "may have been briefed on it," he was was not kept appraised of the scope of the investigation.

Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio, who was deputy chief of the department at the time, says that his officers only gave the NYPD a tour of Newark at their request, but the NYPD never revealed what their investigation was about. This would seem to contradict Bloomberg's other assertion this morning: "In the case of I think its Newark, they've assigned one of their police officers to work with the NYPD. So, we've certainly been keeping them informed."

On the question of whether the NYPD had any business interfering New Jersey and conducting surveillance on citizens, Bloomberg did not budge. "You gotta remember, John, a lot of the World Trade Center terrorists that killed 3,000 people went back and forth to New Jersey, and trained, I think, some of the training was in New Jersey, certainly some of the planning was in Newark, as a matter of fact. And so to say that the NYPD should stop at the border is a bit ridiculous."

A fair point. But what seems to bother Christie is not the NYPD's presence on "his" turf, but the department's lack of communication with local law enforcement. And what has civil libertarians, Muslims, and others outraged is not so much the NYPD's counterterrorism outside New York, but the methodology, with blanket surveillance of citizens based solely on their religion. "I am deeply concerned by reports that the NYPD’s law enforcement efforts focused on individuals who were not suspected of any criminal activity," Senator Robert Menendez said in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and CIA Director David Petraeus. "While I strongly support credible efforts to prevent terrorism, I have grave concerns about any program that targets communities with no credible law enforcement intelligence."