CITYWIDE

ALLEGED HEROIN KINGPIN ARRESTED

One of the world’s most wanted drug kingpins with connections to the Taliban was arrested yesterday for conspiring to import over $50 million in heroin into America and other countries, law enforcement sources said.

The indictment, unsealed in Manhattan federal court yesterday, charged Bashir Noorzai, 44, with heading up an international heroin trafficking organization that was responsible for growing and producing hundreds of grams of heroin at Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since at least 1990, Mr. Noorzai’s organization provided weapons and manpower to the Taliban in exchange for protection of their drug laboratories and trafficking routes.

“The Afghan drug lords who control Afghanistan’s heroin supply seek to destabilize the country’s emerging democracy, to exploit its farmers, and to poison the youth of the West,” U.S. Attorney David Kelley said.

– Special to the Sun

FREEDOM TOWER PLANS TO BE REVISED FOR NYPD SAFETY CONCERNS

Plans for a new skyscraper at the World Trade Center site have to be revised because of safety concerns raised by New York Police Department security experts, delaying the building’s opening, rebuilding officials said yesterday.

The expected 2009 opening of the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, designed by architects David Childs and Daniel Libeskind, will be delayed by several months, rebuilding officials said.

“The Freedom Tower must be built in a manner consistent with the highest safety and security standards and yet allow for a bold design that reclaims New York’s skyline with an enduring symbol of freedom,” Governor Pataki’s spokeswoman, Lynn Rasic, said.

The governor is working with Mayor Bloomberg, trade center leaseholder Larry Silverstein, and other rebuilding partners on modifications consistent with the Libeskind master plan, Ms. Rasic said. The complications with the Freedom Tower will not delay plans for any other aspects of downtown Manhattan development, including the new performing arts center, set for 2009 or 2010, and the trade center memorial, and new PATH commuter train station, both set for 2009, officials said.

Representatives for the governor and the trade center leaseholder declined to identify precisely what aspects of the plans need modification. The police department, citing security reasons, declined to comment on the Freedom Tower plans.

– Associated Press

CHECK MISTAKE PROMPTS EDUCATION DEPT. RISK ASSESSMENT

The city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., is launching a “risk assessment” of the Department of Education in the wake of reports last week that the department wrote a check to a lawyer for 100 times what was due.

Mr. Thompson’s decision to launch the risk assessment followed the return of a check worth $8,614,575 to the Department of Education by lawyer Gary Mayerson, who represents learning disabled students. The department owed Mr. Mayerson’s clients only $85,415.

When news of the check mistake first reached officials at the education department, the department’s chief financial officer, Bruce Feig, acknowledged that the education department was at fault for creating and sending out the $8.6 million check – he attributed the blunder to human error – but said the department would have caught the overpayment.

Mr. Feig said the problem would be cleared up within two weeks, when the department starts using software for check-writing rather than relying on employees to type in the amount of money on each check.

Yesterday, the press secretary to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Jerry Russo, said: “We welcome the assessment.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

FIELDS TO TAP SETO AS CAMPAIGN MANAGER

The C. Virginia Fields campaign is expected to announce the appointment of Chung Seto, the former executive director of the New York State Democratic Committee, as Ms. Fields’s campaign manager today. Ms. Seto will begin working for the campaign early next month. She will be in charge of the day-to-day operations for Ms. Fields, who is in second place among the Democrats running for mayor.

Last month, when the Democratic State Committee chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell announced a replacement for Ms. Seto, he said she had set a “high standard.”

“Chung has been a highly valued executive who has dedicated her energies and ability to making the democratic process more inclusive and effective for so many,” he said. “New York Democrats have benefited enormously from her commitment and dedication to grow the party.”

Ms. Fields’s consultant, Joseph Mercurio, called Ms. Seto “one of the premier, senior political operatives in the state.”

“She’s available, so we’re bringing her in,” he said. “She’s very experienced with New York City and New York State politics. She’s a major player.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

QUEENS

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL WHO INSULTED HAITIAN STUDENTS TO BE FIRED

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced yesterday that he intended to fire the Queens assistant principal who has been accused of calling students “animals” and forcing them to eat their lunches with their fingers.

His comments came as the Department of Education’s Office of Special Investigations completed its report on the incident, which happened last month.

The report substantiated allegations that the P.S. 34 assistant principal, Nancy Miller, forced a class of bilingual fourth and fifth graders to sit on the floor while they ate lunch and refused to let them retrieve utensils. The report also substantiated allegations that the school leader called the children animals. Interviews with school officials and students did not confirm allegations that Ms. Miller insulted Haiti, the students’ country of origin.

In a statement, the chancellor apologized to the students involved in the incident and to their families.

“This is wholly unacceptable behavior and should never have happened,” the chancellor said. “As required by our contract with the [principals union] we will have a disciplinary conference with Ms. Miller this week, and I anticipate that Ms. Miller will be removed from her job as an assistant principal and from the school, and that we will begin termination proceedings against her.”

Ms. Miller’s union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, was closed for the day and could not be reached for comment.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

COMPTROLLER SAYS BELLEVUE HAS INVENTORY PROBLEMS

The city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., released an audit yesterday that found the Bellevue Hospital center has significant problems tracking its $4.8 million inventory of noncontrolled drugs and medical and surgical supplies.

The audit, which covered fiscal year 2003, reviewed the inventory controls put in place by the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation to track intravenous solutions, diapers, syringes, and needles.

According to the audit, Bellevue undervalued its inventory of non-controlled drugs by $1.6 million. The hospital told HHC that the total value of its inventory was some $4.2 million. Mr. Thompson estimates it was understated by 39% because the hospital did not include the $1.6 million in supplies.

The comptroller’s office provided 17 recommendations to Bellevue to fix the problem, including a computerized perpetual inventory system for its inventory of non-controlled drugs and locking away stores of medical and surgical supplies. Officials at Bellevue, in response to the audit, said that they had agreed with some findings and “disagreed with the severity of others.”

The hospital has put 14 of the 17 recommendations in force and the remaining three will be in place by June 30, a Bellevue spokesperson said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SENATOR CLINTON SEES ROSEN ACQUITTAL IN FUTURE

Senator Clinton yesterday predicted that a top finance aide on her 2000 Senate bid, David Rosen, will be acquitted in an upcoming federal trial on charges that he caused the filing of false campaign finance reports.

In response to a reporter’s question about whether Mr. Rosen will be cleared, Mrs. Clinton said, “We certainly believe so.” Mr. Rosen, who was the national finance director on Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, faces three felony counts in the trial which is set to begin next Tuesday in federal court at Los Angeles.

Mrs. Clinton declined yesterday to address reports that a New Orleans political consultant, Raymond Reggie, worked as an informant for the FBI and covertly taped Mr. Rosen discussing an August 2000 celebrity fundraiser at the center of the case. The senator said it would be inappropriate for her to comment because the matter is in litigation.

Mr. Reggie is the brother-in-law of Senator Kennedy. His surreptitious taping of Mr. Rosen and perhaps others has caused significant concern in Democratic circles.

Mrs. Clinton made her comments following a Social Security-related appearance at Baruch College School of Business in Manhattan. At the event, Mrs. Clinton, Senator Schumer, and Senator Wyden of Oregon joined business leaders to criticize President Bush’s proposal to create personal, private accounts as part of a plan to revamp Social Security.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun