Obama Emboldens Muslim group to slam FBI surveillance

April 21, 7:12 AMLaw Enforcement ExaminerJim Kouri

With the change in policy regarding the global war on terrorism by President Barack Obama and his national security team, it appears that suspected Fifth Column-type groups have become emboldened to make symbolic demands on agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

For example, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR on Monday called for the FBI  to confirm or deny a claim by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) that "a number" of Long Island mosques are under law enforcement surveillance.

In a recent Newsday interview, King said, "right now there are a number of [Long Island] mosques under surveillance by law enforcement agencies." King also claimed the mosques have been under surveillance "for four or five years."
 

King's allegations about spying on mosques in his district came in response to a CAIR statement last week calling on elected representatives to repudiate the congressman's claim that "very few Muslims come forward to cooperate with the police."

In responding to ongoing Muslim concerns about reports of informants and agents provocateurs being placed in American mosques, FBI spokesman John Miller stated recently: "The FBI does not investigate mosques, we investigate people." (Washington Post, 3/28/09)

At a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) asked FBI Director Robert Mueller "whether mosques have been entered by FBI agents or informants without disclosing their identities under the authority of the attorney general guidelines and, if so, how many?" Mueller stated: "I will say that we do not focus on institutions, we focus on individuals."

In a 2008 statement refuting claims that surveillance records of mosques in California were illegally obtained and disseminated by a group operating out of the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the FBI said:
 

"The FBI does not monitor the lawful activities of individuals in the United States, nor does the FBI have a surveillance program to monitor the constitutionally protected activities of houses of worship. We do not target or monitor legal activity of Muslim groups anywhere in the nation."

"Congressman King's claim that law enforcement authorities are engaged in widespread surveillance of Islamic houses of worship in his district raises serious civil liberties concerns that must be addressed," said CAIR-NY Community Affairs Director Faiza N. Ali. "King's repeated use of Islamophobic rhetoric is of deep concern to Muslims in his district and to the entire American Muslim community."
 

She said King's claims that American Muslims are not doing enough to support national security and law enforcement agencies are contradicted by FBI Director Mueller, who on April 23, 2008, told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee: "I re-affirm the fact that 99.9 percent of Muslim-Americans or Sikh-Americans, Arab-Americans are every bit as patriotic as anybody else in this room, and that many of our cases are a result of the cooperation from the Muslim community in the United States."
 

At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 25, 2009, Director Mueller said the Muslim community "has been tremendously supportive and worked very closely with [the FBI] in a number of instances around the country."
 

In a 2003 interview with The Minaret magazine, Mueller said: "I would like to thank the Muslim Americans for their support on the war against terrorism and working with the FBI around the country as well as state and local law enforcement."
 

In 2007, CAIR called on Republican leaders to repudiate remarks by Rep. King in which he said "we have too many mosques in this country." The Democratic National Committee (DNC) condemned King's statements, calling them "deplorable."