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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
Discrimination : Reports concern Muslims
Alleged checks on San Diego, L.A. mosques spark calls for hearings.
By H.G. Reza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 29, 2008
A report that mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego are under federal
surveillance has resurrected fears in the Muslim community about
government monitoring and led two civil rights groups Wednesday to
call for congressional hearings.
The request for public hearings followed a newspaper article last
week that cited FBI and Defense Department files pertaining to
surveillance of mosques and Muslims in Southern California.
Corey Saylor, Washington spokesman for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, said the article in the San Diego
Union-Tribune "has again raised concerns that our community is being watched."
"We've heard about this in the past, but this article appears to be
the first confirmation that surveillance is taking place," Saylor
said. "Has faith moved from a personal choice to probable cause?"
Council chapters in Anaheim and San Diego joined the American Civil
Liberties Union and Islamic Shura Council of Southern California in
asking the U.S. House and Senate judiciary committees and the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for hearings. In a
letter to the committee chairmen and ranking minority members, the
groups said hearings are needed to determine the extent of the
surveillance and whether people are being monitored because they are Muslim.
Information about the alleged spying surfaced in a case about
classified files concerning terrorism that the newspaper said were
stolen from a secure office used by mili- tary and civilian law
enforcement officials at Camp Pendleton.
Ed Buice, Naval Criminal Investigative Service spokesman in
Washington, said an investigation was underway to determine "whether
individuals connected to the military may have been involved in
illegal activities."
"I appreciate that the groups asking for congressional hearings want
to know more about where all the dots are and how they all connect,"
Buice said. "But there is still much work to be done in this case,
and we cannot discuss the details of the ongoing investigation."
An FBI spokesman in San Diego would not confirm that an investigation
was ongoing and said the agency regularly reaches out to Muslims
through town meetings.
The civil rights groups also want the hearings to determine if the
U.S. military has engaged in domestic surveillance in violation of
federal law. The Islamic Center of San Diego, where two of the 9/11
hijackers worshiped in early 2000, was the only mosque mentioned in
the San Diego Union-Tribune article. The report did not specify which
other mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego were allegedly under
surveillance. But Saylor said it would not be surprising if mosques
in Orange County were also monitored.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, members of the Islamic Center of
Irvine and other local mosques have complained about FBI agents
questioning them about imams' sermons and how often they attend
services. In 2006, J. Stephen Tidwell, then-FBI assistant director in
Los Angeles, met at the Irvine mosque with about 200 people who
questioned him about government monitoring.
The meeting was prompted by media reports that the FBI was monitoring
Muslim students at UC Irvine and USC. Tidwell denied that monitoring
was taking place, telling the audience that "we still play by the rules."
Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Southern California, said the congressional hearings would
compel the government "to say why they're amassing this information."
"There's a lot of suspicion of the Muslim community," she said.
ACLU lawyers regularly go to mosques to advise worshipers that they
do not have to answer questions from FBI agents about how long they
have been in the United States, how often they attend services and
what they get out of the sermons, Ripston said.
The newspaper said some missing files were made available to Los
Angeles County sheriff's deputies. Larry Richards, a deputy and
Marine reservist, is one of several people under investigation by the
FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in the thefts.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said
Wednesday that Richards used to work with the Los Angeles Terrorism
Early Warning Group but is currently on administrative leave. He
declined to comment further because of the ongoing federal investigation.
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
source:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-mosques29-2008may29,0,5084366.story
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-muslim voice-
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