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The leaked data indicate that in public life American Muslims were "subject to the kind of surveillance that Hoover did on Martin Luther King," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero told an Aspen Ideas Festival panel Wednesday.
He didn't provide further details, or any deadline for the expected exposé to be published, explaining that preparing it is labor-intensive because the source material is a database rather than some materials prepared for public presentation.
"It will be interesting to see who is on this list but I don't know," The Atlantic reported him as saying. "It will be interesting to see if there were members of Congress on this list, what kind of judicial review was provided."
The controversial discriminating practice of surveillance on US Muslims after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks came to public prominence in 2011, when The Associated Press reported on NYPD's spying on Muslims in New York City and neighboring New Jersey.
The revelation sparked outrage, with dozens Muslim leaders and human rights groups speaking out against it, but the practice was not abandoned until April 2014.
The controversy remains as the practice itself was ruled by a federal court to be a lawful anti-terrorism effort that didn't amount to civil-rights violation. The program's efficiency, however, was dubious at best, as police admitted that it didn't generate a single lead.
another whistleblower higher up the food chain, said most of this is already known and doesn't include the real 'secret' stuff, and why is Greenwald 'milking' this so much? Is it an ego thing? He seems to be using it like its in limited supply and wants to preserve the propaganda effect as long as possible... and I notice still nothing on the CIA, the "Snowman's" job before moving over to the NSA affiliate... and isn't that rather telling? And what have we really learned except the govt spys on all of us including themselves? Nothing.... Hoover did this to anyone he thought worth the expense... govts throughout history have done it... and always to maintain control of the herd of sheep which we are until we learn to become shepherds for our own souls. This is the obstacle course, the test for graduation... and Greenwald talks alot, but seems to be covering up far more than he exposes, most of which is already known... seems part of the distraction club.