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US radiation snooping of Muslims called ‘disturbing’

WASHINGTON: The Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim rights organisation in the United States, has described the revelation that Muslim gatherings and homes around Washington have been electronically “sniffed” for radiation as “disturbing.”

In a statement on Friday, CAIR said, “This disturbing revelation, coupled with recent reports of domestic surveillance without warrant, could lead to the perception that we are no longer a nation ruled by law, but instead one in which fear trumps constitutional rights. All Americans should be concerned about the apparent trend toward a two-tiered system of justice system, with full rights for most citizens, and another diminished set of rights for Muslims.”

The weekly US News and World Report was the first to come up with the finding, which has sent a shockwave across the Muslim community, which in any case has felt under pressure since 9/11. People are going to become extra careful what they say on the phone, or write in their emails or letters. Many Muslims in the Washington area, as elsewhere, believe that they are under watch. The treatment meted out to Muslims, including US citizens of long standing, at arrival points in the United States is already something of a scandal in the community. One Muslim doctor who has lived here for 30 years said he dreaded landing back in the US because of what awaits travellers like him: namely, being singled out, taken to a separate room and interrogated.

A former Pakistani prime minister, who being the head of a large development financing company, makes frequent trips abroad, including trips to the Middle East, was asked at a US airport on return from one why he had made so many visits to Saudi Arabia. One serving Pakistan army general, here on an official invitation, was grilled on arrival and aggressively body-searched. The Pakistan embassy here has done little to convey to the host government how upset and disgusted the Pakistani-American community is because of such humiliating treatment. At the Islamabad end too, the government has dealt with the American embassy somewhat “gingerly.” Other Muslim countries and their embassies here are equally weak-kneed when it comes to dealing with official America since 9/11. American Muslims returning from a religious convention in Canada recently were given “the treatment” on arrival, which sent a wave of disgust across the community. A Muslim religious scholar who flew in from Australia last week to attend a convention of Muslim leaders and scholars in Texas was refused entry. No reason was given, either to him or to the organisers who asked.

The US News and World Report disclosed that in search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, DC, area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities. In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the programme. “Federal officials familiar with the programme maintain that warrants are unneeded for the kind of radiation sampling the operation entails, but some legal scholars disagree. News of the programme comes in the wake of revelations last week that, after 9/11, the Bush White House approved electronic surveillance of US targets by the National Security Agency without court orders. These and other developments suggest that the federal government’s domestic spying programs since 9/11 have been far broader than previously thought.”The magazine said, “In Washington, the sites monitored have included prominent mosques and office buildings in suburban Maryland and Virginia. One source close to the programme said that participants ‘were tasked on a daily and nightly basis,’ and that FBI and Energy Department officials held regular meetings to update the monitoring list. ‘The targets were almost all US citizens,’ says the source. ‘A lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs. We were told it was perfectly legal.’ The question of search warrants is controversial, however. To ensure accurate readings, in up to 15 percent of the cases the monitoring needed to take place on private property, sources say, such as on mosque parking lots and private driveways. Government officials familiar with the programme insist it is legal; warrants are unneeded for monitoring from public property, they say, as well as from publicly accessible driveways and parking lots. “If a delivery man can access it, so can we,” says one.” khalid hasan

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