The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern
California sued the U.S. Justice Department and FBI on Thursday,
seeking a court order forcing the release of documents related to the
questioning and monitoring of Arab and Muslim citizens. The ACLU had
filed a written request for these documents under the Freedom of
Information Act in August, after hearing that people throughout
Northern California had been interviewed or interrogated by the FBI for
no apparent reason other than that they were Muslims or of Middle
Eastern descent. The lawsuit filed Thursday claims that while the
Justice Department's Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys granted their
request for fast processing of prosecutors' documents, the FBI refused
to do so. The ACLU now wants a court order forcing the FBI to process
the document request immediately and release the information. Among the
information the ACLU seeks are any written policies the FBI's Joint
Terrorism Task Forces have on controlling the maintenance, use and
destruction of sensitive religious, political and personal information
gathered in such interviews; ensuring the JTTFs adhere to California's
tighter civil rights protections; and ensuring religious practice or
political dissent aren't by themselves appropriate subjects for
investigation. "It's time for the FBI to come clean about this
unprecedented campaign and the activities of their JTTFs in our state,"
ACLU attorney John Crew said in a news release. [more ]
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