NY cops snoop on Muslim students,raise privacy fears

With its whitewashed bell tower,groomed lawns and Georgian-style buildings,Brooklyn College looks like a slice of 18th century America dropped into modern-day New York City.

With its whitewashed bell tower,groomed lawns and Georgian-style buildings,Brooklyn College looks like a slice of 18th century America dropped into modern-day New York City. But for years New York police have feared this bucolic setting might hide a sinister secret: the beginnings of a Muslim terrorist cell.

Investigators have been infiltrating Muslim student groups at Brooklyn College and other schools in the city,monitoring their Internet activity and placing undercover agents in their ranks,police documents obtained by The Associated Press show. Legal experts say the operation may have broken a 19-year-old pact with the colleges and violated US privacy laws.

The infiltration was part of a secret NYPD intelligence-gathering effort that put entire Muslim communities under scrutiny. Police photographed grocery stores and restaurants that cater to Muslims and built databases showing where people shopped,got their hair cut and prayed. The AP first reported on the secret campaign in August.

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In a few instances,NYPD cops approached campus police for help,saying they were working narcotics or gang cases to win their cooperation and even access to records. They used the records to identify students they were observing and get contact information.

Alarmed professors and students are calling on college administrators to investigate. Its really about personal freedom, said Moustafa Bayoumi,an English professor at Brooklyn College. The government,through the police department,is working privately to destroy the private lives of Muslim citizens.

Outside a prayer room on the edge of Brooklyn College campus,students are worried they might be marked for life flagged on a terrorism watch list or blacklisted in a police dossier because of the surveillance. We come to the room,we talk,we chill, said Shirin Akter,20,an education major. So if another sister comes and shes a cop,thats not cool. Im really scared about this.