MUSLIM PROPAGANDA FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Muslims feel vindicated by report finding profiling by New Jersey anti-terror cops
AP ^ | 10/7/5 | Wayne Parry
Muslims say a federal report supporting charges that New Jersey counterterrorism officials were compiling reports on Muslims solely because of their religion confirms what they have been claiming for years.
"This shouldn't surprise anyone," said Yaser El-Menshawy, chairman of the Majlis Ash-Shura of New Jersey, the state's council of mosques. "Although it's wrong and it's bad law enforcement, Muslims understand that we have fewer rights than anyone else right now. I'm sure people in law enforcement realize that and know they can get away with things with Muslims that they can't with any other group."
The Institute for Intergovernmental Research, at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, reviewed a dispute in New Jersey over state counterterrorism investigators entering 140 reports into a law-enforcement database.
Fearing they would be accused of racial profiling after being ordered by the federal government to halt the practice of targeting motorists based on race, New Jersey state police prohibited the state's Office of Counter-Terrorism from entering any more of their intelligence reports into the database.
On Monday, state police yanked 14 troopers from the counterterror office, prompting acting Gov. Codey to intervene in what he called a turf war between state agencies, undoing some of the moves and stripping the state Attorney General's Office of much power over the anti-terror agency.
The report, obtained by The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Bergen County, found no specific terrorist or criminal activity that would justify including the individuals and organizations in the anti-terror database. It added that state police "acted responsibly in removing the 140 submissions" from the database.
Auditors from the Florida-based Institute for Intergovernmental Research, which has several contracts to do similar review work for the Justice Department, met with representatives of New Jersey state police and the attorney general's office, who described the reports to them. The auditors did not view the actual reports because they do not have security clearance.
The counterterrorism office has denied that the reports constituted profiling, claiming the documents were incomplete and that state police misunderstood how they were being compiled. Spokesmen for the state police, attorney general's office and counterterrorism office declined to comment on the report Friday.
"How can American citizens be treated like this just because of their religion in the land of freedom?" asked Mohamed Younes, president of the American Muslim Union and an elder in Paterson's Muslim community. "This has been our biggest problem, and it is absolutely wrong." |
