By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A judge has ordered the FBI to release documents detailing its surveillance of Muslims and recruiting efforts in Northern California, The San Francisco Gate reports.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of San Francisco said the FBI must disclose previously redacted or omitted information about the programs used to conduct surveillance of Muslims without evidence of wrongdoing.
The FBI claimed that some of the information was “compiled for law enforcement purposes” and therefore are exempt from disclosure.
“Generalized monitoring and information-gathering are not sufficient justifications” to withhold information, Seeborg said.
“This decision upholds the public’s right to know about FBI activities that are not sensitive crime-fighting activities,” said ACLU attorney Julia Harumi Mass. “Communities in Northern California have a right to understand how they’re being spied upon by the government.”
The FBI declined to comment.
