Friday, December 30, 2005

U.S. Says It Didn't Target Muslims

Mosques Among Sites Monitored For Radiation

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 29, 2005; B01

Faced with angry complaints, U.S. officials defended an anti-terrorism program yesterday that secretly tested radiation levels around the country -- including at more than 100 Muslim sites in the Washington area -- and insisted that no one was targeted because of his or her faith.

One official knowledgeable about the program explained that Muslim sites were included because al Qaeda terrorists were considered likely to gravitate to Muslim neighborhoods or mosques while in the United States.

"If you were looking [for] the needle in a haystack, that's the haystack you would look at," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. "You'd look at the [likely] targets and the places the operators were."

No indications of radiation were found at the businesses, homes, warehouses or mosques that were included in the program. The official said that radiation monitoring of the Muslim sites started after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and lasted through 2003.

The focus on the Muslim sites, which was first reported last week by U.S. News & World Report, has stunned and angered officials at mosques and Muslim and Arab-American organizations. Two such groups have filed Freedom of Information requests, known as FOIAs, in recent days to try to learn which sites were monitored. They also have requested meetings with the FBI, which ran the program along with the Energy Department.

"The problem [is] . . . it further gives the Muslim community a sense they are suspect, they are under the gun," said Ahmed Younis, national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Michael A. Mason, who oversees the Washington Field Office of the FBI, said in an interview that he hoped to meet next week with the groups.

"We have not violated the law; we have not violated the Constitution; we have not gone on private property," Mason said. He said that he could provide few details because the program remains classified but added that the monitoring devices involved were "passive," roughly akin to holding a thermometer out the window of a moving car to measure the temperature.

"It's not like thermal-imaging a house, where you're trying to figure out if they're trying to grow marijuana," he said.

Officials emphasized that Washington wasn't the only place where the program operated. Nor were Muslim sites the only focus: The program included airports, buildings and monuments that were considered possible targets for a terrorist attack, said the official familiar with the program who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"There was no more intensive focus on D.C. than there was on several other cities," he said.

The testing began several months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when a series of events had convinced U.S. officials that another terrorist attack was imminent, the official said. Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in May 2002 on suspicion of planning an attack with a radiological dirty bomb; Osama bin Laden was threatening to strike again.

In addition, documents discovered in Afghanistan indicated that terrorists could possibly use a U.S. mosque to hide radioactive material, said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI counterterrorism agent.

Cloonan, who earlier was interviewed by ABC News about the program, said it was not clear which mosques might have been considered.

The official familiar with the program acknowledged that "now it sounds like a crazy thing. But at the time it didn't sound like a very crazy thing. . . All the intel was saying, 'An attack is coming, it's likely to be al Qaeda, likely to be launched in a U.S. city, likely to involve a dirty device'. . . Where would you go looking for that?"

Authorities determined that in the past, al Qaeda terrorists or people close to them tended to live in Muslim neighborhoods or attend local mosques, the official said. That's how some sites became included in a program, he said. Other sites were chosen because of specific intelligence information.

Most of the testing was apparently done from nearby streets. But, according to U.S. News & World Report, in as much as 15 percent of the cases, officials had to go onto private property, such as mosque parking lots and private driveways, to get accurate readings.

Officials involved with the program said no warrants were needed because they were in public access areas. But some Muslim activists said they were concerned.

"We'd like our federal law enforcement agencies to know the American Muslim community stands firmly behind protecting our nation's borders," said Arsalan Iftikhar, legal director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the groups that are seeking the addresses of the sites involved. "But, at the same time, we are not willing to give up our guaranteed constitutional and legal rights in order to do that."

He said his group constantly received phone calls from Muslims who believed they were under surveillance. But none had specifically mentioned possible radiation testing.

U.S. News & World Report said that some officials believed the program, which involved property occupied or owned by U.S. citizens, was legally questionable. It quoted one unidentified source as saying that participants who complained "nearly lost their jobs."

Mason said that did not occur in the local FBI office.

"No one in the Washington Field Office would ever be so threatened," he said. "Never."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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Ok, Burn me in oil, but I still do not have problem with surveillance for radiation, anywhere, anytime. While I do understand how Muslims must feel, being targeted or singled out as a group for surveillance, it is for radiation. We all have a vested interest in detecting a possible dirty bomb. Makes no difference what your religion is or what your race is. Radiation does not recognize those "differences." It is an equal opportunity destroyer.
 
I demand that nothing be done to Muslims that I would not mind being done to me. I do not care if the government wants to test my house for radiation. Have at it, and let me know if I am in danger of radiation poisoning, from the nutcase next door who might be playing at Nuke building in his basement, because I am certainly not about building nuclear devices of any sort, If I had my way, the planet would be rid of the damn things forever.
 
It is this sort of thing that I expect the government to do. But there does need to be strict oversight, by the congress and the judiciary. Even if warrants are obtained two weeks after the fact, let's have an official record somewhere, of what is being done in our names and on our dime.
It is especially needed for any and all actions by this particular administration, because it has proved itself to be anything but trustworthy.
 
 

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