Posted on 09/18/2007 6:14:07 PM PDT by Dubya
SANTA ANA, Calif. — The ACLU and Muslim advocacy groups sued the FBI and the Justice Department on Tuesday, alleging that authorities failed to turn over records detailing suspected surveillance of the Muslim-American community.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, alleges that the FBI has turned over only four pages of documents to community leaders, despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than a year ago.
The request sought records that described FBI guidelines and policies for surveillance and investigation of Muslim religious organizations, as well as specific information about FBI inquiries targeting 11 groups or people.
The lawsuit states that all the plaintiffs — who include some of the most prominent Muslim leaders in California — have reason to believe they have been investigated by the FBI since January 2001.
"It sends a message that Muslim-Americans have been, and continue to be, cooperating with law enforcement, but they're concerned there might be a disproportionate focus ... on their religious practices," said Ranjana Natarajan, an ACLU attorney.
One plaintiff, Shakeel Syed, said that his organization and others have spent three years building a relationship with the FBI but that the agency's resistance to the request was troubling.
"I think it is in the best interests of the government to come clean and be transparent and forthright," said Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "This is a credibility issue."
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said she could not comment on pending litigation but released a statement from J. Stephen Tidwell, the FBI's assistant director in charge for Los Angeles.
"The FBI does not investigate individuals or groups based on their lawful activities, religious or political beliefs," Tidwell said.
A message left for the Department of Justice after business hours was not returned.
The groups filed an initial FOIA request in May 2006, several months after federal law enforcement officials confirmed the existence of a classified radiation monitoring program used in surveillance at mosques, homes and businesses.
The FBI responded to the request first by saying it couldn't identify any records that met the criteria requested. After an appeal, the agency turned over four pages that dealt with the Council of American-Islamic Relations and Hussam Ayloush, the council's executive director for Southern California.
Those documents dealt with a suspected hate crime at a mosque that the council had reported to the FBI and a conversation Ayloush had with an FBI agent about cooperating with federal law enforcers, Natarajan said.
She said she believes there are many more records because each plaintiff has been interviewed by the FBI or stopped at airports for questioning. The FBI, in its responses, indicted it searched only files that hold information on active criminal investigations instead of more general files that could encompass surveillance activities, she said.
Ayloush, who said he is questioned by federal agents every time he flies internationally, said he had hoped the FOIA request would help him determine why he is stopped.
"Either ... we're being stopped because we're Muslims — which is morally wrong — or that the government must have some erroneous info linked to me that I need to be able to clear," he said.
The government has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit.
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FOIA exempts documents pertaining to ongoing investigations.
too bad.
They’re upset for a change. How does the FBI prove a negative? “Prove that you don’t have dociments by turning over the docs you don’t have.”
I know what you mean Ranjana. It is HIGHLY diproportionate.
Ishaq:327 “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’” HADITH Sahih Muslim [41:6984] Abdullah b. 'Umar reported that Allah's Messenger (may Pigs be inseminating him) said: The Jews will fight against you and you will gain victory over them until the stone would say: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me;
"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth"
--Omar Ahmed, Chairman of the Board of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), San Ramon Valley Herald, July 1998
Qur’an 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”
Qur’an 8:57 “If you gain mastery over them in battle, inflict such a defeat as would terrorize them, so that they would learn a lesson and be warned.”
Quran-4:89— Take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah. But if they turn renegades, wherever ye find them; and take no friends or helpers from their ranks.
Sura 9:5 of the “Koranus,” “wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.”
" upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God." Sura 9:29
"Strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every finger tip." - Sura 8:12
They should allah be deported back to satans sand box!
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I hate the ACLU. IMO, they do everything they can to destroy America. Just try to get them to help ONE child who has been abused by her Father, and see what you get.
chandlerkids-thetruth.com, go check it out.
Look into the ACLJ which counters them in court, and send them money.
American Center for Law and Justice.
Only as a last meal...eom
Their religious textbook, the koran tells them to kill non-muslims, how much focus on their "religious practices" do you think that warrants?
Totally — SCREW the ACLU. I’m drawing a line in the sand on this one. Let’s run them out of town.
AMAZING how they conceal which Moslem Groups are part of this anti-american effort. CAIR is number one on the bulls eye.
“The ACLU is a truly dangerous organization.”
The ACLU defends the Constitution of the United States. Why on earth would you think they’re a “dangerous organization”?
You were asking whether there’s anything possible the FBI could do. The answer of course, is yes. If you read the article you would have noticed the nub of the complaint:
“The FBI, in its responses, indicted it searched only files that hold information on active criminal investigations instead of more general files that could encompass surveillance activities”
And it would, of course, be possible for the FBI to search those other files.
“Totally — SCREW the ACLU. I’m drawing a line in the sand on this one. Let’s run them out of town.”
Interesting.
Just one question. How do you plan on doing that without subverting the Constitution of the United States and thereby becoming an enemy of the Republic the rest of us swore we’d defend?
“Their religious textbook, the koran tells them to kill non-muslims, how much focus on their ‘religious practices’ do you think that warrants?”
Another religious textbook, the Bible, instructs people to kill anyone working on Sundays. How much FBI surveillance on Christians do you think that warrants?
"Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas.
Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development."
To which, one Shakeel Syed posted the following reply:
"These respectable organizations serve Muslims and people of all faiths."
So, Mr. Syed is on record supporting unindicted co-conspiritors of the Holy Land Foundation, a proven front group of Hamas.
Link: http://www.nysun.com/comments/26407
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