COULD ABUSE OF POWER RE SYAED ALI SINK BROWN, TAINT CUOMO?...HIGHLY PLACED SOURCE LAYS OUT POSSIBLE REPERCUSSIONS...ARREST WITHOUT WARRANT TO DIG UP DIRT ON POLITICAL RIVALS NOT AMERICAN WAY..."THIS IS STILL AMERICA, ISN'T IT?"

It all began when a pack of law officers descended on a house on Breckinridge in the early morning hours of last Nov. 7. Now some highly placed sources are wondering how far the repercussions will extend from an episode in which an American citizen was detained without benefit of arrest warrant or Miranda rights for the apparent purpose of digging up dirt against Assemblymember Sam Hoyt and Common Council Member Mickey Kearns.

"This was a very serious situation," says our greybearded expert who asked that his name not be used. "It appears to be a case in which some of the fundamental rights of an American citizen were breached. Besides the fact that they arrested this guy, Syaed Ali, a native of this country, a citizen, illegally, without the proper authority and without reading him his constitutional rights, there's the fact that the offense they supposedly arrested him for, the distribution of "false press releases" isn't illegal! In fact, it's a constitutionally protected activity. If spreading false press releases was illegal, half the Congress would be

In fact, our highly placed source refuses to call what was done to Syaed Ali an arrest, even an illegal one.

"This appears to be nothing short of a kidnapping in which an American citizen, and in fact a highly accomplished one, was detained illegally and deprived of food and access to counsel or family, for the apparent purpose of digging up dirt on certan political figures," he or she goes on. "I believe they picked up Syaed, not because they thought he had even done these things, but because they thought for some reason that he was a person they could intimidate into incriminating Hoyt and Kearns in some way. That was the purpose of it!"

So what went wrong for the perpetrators?

"The one thing they didn't count on was the fact that this young 24 year old man, Syaed Ali, had the guts to refuse to knuckle under to them," our guy replies. "He had the guts to point out to them that what they were asking him to do: Commit perjury by accusing Hoyt and Kearns of things they didn't do, is more against the law than what he had been 'arrested' for.'...These guys didn't count on that."

As for the wider implications?

"The wider implications are that this could affect the careers of both Mayor Brown and NYS Attorney General Cuomo, whose Buffalo office was used for most of the abusive questioning of Syaed," says our Person In The Know. "If Cuomo really wants to run for governor in 2010, this could come back to haunt him because it's a serious abuse of power for political purposes by those who are sworn to uphold the law, people who are also employees of the Attorney General. It's only a matter of time before the New York City media gets a hold of this."

As for the Mayor?

"As for Mayor Brown, the question may come down to: What did he know and when did he know it," is the answer. "This is Watergate territory and it's not good. Why should police officers be arresting people to find out about their political activities, real or imagined, against Mayor Brown? This kind of thing is totally contrary to what America is all about. Have these guys read the Bill of Rights? It's the kind of activity that people died to keep from these shores. After all, this is still America, isn't it?"