FBI Ordered to Turn Over Information on Surveillance of Muslims in California

As reported by the AP, on Monday U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney ordered the FBI to provide the court with records relating to FBI investigation and surveillance of Muslims in southern California. The judge will then review the documents requested by the ACLU on behalf of Muslim individuals and organizations, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, that believe they have been unfairly targeted for surveillance by the FBI.  The complaints include allegations about the FBI’s planting of an informant in area mosque. ( Recent stories in the Christian  Science Monitor and Washington Post provide more information on FBI  mosque infiltration efforts.)  The Department of Justice will be given an opportunity to present objections to the release of documents based national security or privacy grounds.  In a press release on the judge’s decision, ACLU/SC staff attorney Jennie Pasquarella stated: 

“This ruling sends a clear message to the FBI that it must provide a transparent accounting of this surveillance and must cease religious profiling. We believe these surveillance records will show how the FBI infiltrated Southern California mosques and invasively monitored our clients as if members of the Muslim community were presumed criminals.”

JFB