{"id":2020,"date":"2005-12-24T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-24T23:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=2020"},"modified":"2005-12-24T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-24T23:17:00","slug":"santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/","title":{"rendered":"Domestic surveillance: Santa doesn&#8217;t watch Muslims, but the FBI does"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/santa_watching.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">I\u2019m making a list- guess who\u2019s on it?<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>As the popular Christmas carol about Santa Claus goes, \u201cHe knows when you are sleeping\/He knows when you\u2019re awake\/He knows when you\u2019ve been bad or good\/So be good for goodness sake.\u201d  However, since Santa apparently doesn\u2019t watch Muslim homes, the FBI decided to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usnews.com%2Fusnews%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fnest%2F051222nest.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fill in<\/a> for him.  Following last week\u2019s revelations that the Bush administration approved of warrantless tapping of phone conversations made by US citizens, the FBI and US Department of Energy\u2019s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) have confirmed that it conducted hundreds of warrantless searches at US Muslim sites (mosques, homes, businesses, etc.) over the last few years.   While most searches were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com%2F2005%2F12%2F24%2Fnational%2F24radioactive.html%3Fhp%26ex%3D1135486800%26en%3D16f37cc8b03e5948%26ei%3D5094%26partner%3Dhomepage\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">performed<\/a> with radiation detection equipment from publically-accessible streets in front of sites, many required trespassing on private property in order to get clear readings (\u201cIf a delivery man can access it, so can we,\u201d explained one participant).  \u201cThe targets were almost all US citizens,\u201d says <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usnews.com%2Fusnews%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fnest%2F051222nest.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">one source<\/a> close to the program. \u201cA lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs.\u201d  While nearly <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Famericas%2F4557224.stm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">all the targets<\/a> were Muslim sites, the FBI denied any group based on ethnicity, political or religious belief. \u201cWhen intelligence information suggests that there may be a threat to public safety, particularly involving weapons of mass destruction,\u201d explained Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse, \u201cFBI investigators will go wherever the intelligence information takes them.\u201d  (And since the hundreds of searches have turned up nothing, this WMD intelligence is just as effective as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chron.com%2Fdisp%2Fstory.mpl%2Fworld%2F3524372.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">last time<\/a>.)  Parallels are being drawn to a 2001 Supreme Court decision (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mindcontrolforums.com%2Fkyllo-vs-us.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">US vs. Kyllo<\/a>) that ruled that invasing sensing equipment (in that case, thermal imaging technology) violated the Fourth Amendment\u2019s clause against unreasonable search and seizure.  \u201cThe issue isn\u2019t where they are, but whether they\u2019re using a tactic to intrude on privacy,\u201d explains Georgetown University constitutional law professor David Cole.  At its peak, the program <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2005%2F12%2F23%2FAR2005122301524.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">monitored<\/a> up to 120 sites daily in major metropolitan areas, and law enforcement officials <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fchi-0512240263dec24%2C1%2C6840966.story%3Fcoll%3Dchi-newsnationworld-hed\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">confirmed<\/a> that monitoring continues to this day.  \u201cIt was all intelligence-driven,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com%2Ffront%2Fstory%2F377413p-320558c.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> one US counterterrorism official in defense of the program.  Which, of course, begs the question:  How safe can we be with \u201cintelligence\u201d that fingers hundreds of Muslim homes and businesses without turning up anything suspicious?<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coal is put in the stockings of Muslims this Christmas with the revelation that thousands of their homes and businesses were warrantlessly monitored for radioactive material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Domestic surveillance: Santa doesn&#8217;t watch Muslims, but the FBI does<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coal is put in the stockings of Muslims this Christmas with the revelation that thousands of their homes and businesses were warrantlessly monitored for radioactive material.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Domestic surveillance: Santa doesn&#8217;t watch Muslims, but the FBI does\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Coal is put in the stockings of Muslims this Christmas with the revelation that thousands of their homes and businesses were warrantlessly monitored for radioactive material.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-12-24T23:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/santa_watching.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/\",\"name\":\"Domestic surveillance: Santa doesn&#8217;t watch Muslims, but the FBI does\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-12-24T23:17:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-12-24T23:17:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"Coal is put in the stockings of Muslims this Christmas with the revelation that thousands of their homes and businesses were warrantlessly monitored for radioactive material.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/12\/santa_doesnt_watch_muslims_but_the_fbi_does\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Domestic surveillance: Santa doesn&#8217;t watch Muslims, but the FBI does\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; 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