ACLU seeks race, ethnic data due to “Muslim mapping” fears

by Staff for Valley News, view original article

August 19, 2010

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California recently asked the FBI to release records related to the agency’s collection of race and ethnic data in the Southland.

The request is one of 30 coordinated Freedom of Information Act filings by ACLU affiliates in states and the District of Columbia seeking records from FBI field offices related to the "mapping" of ethnic communities.

FBI guidelines on domestic intelligence, issued in 2008 but released this year, authorize agents to collect information about and map so-called "ethnic-oriented" businesses, behaviors, lifestyle characteristics and cultural traditions in communities with concentrated ethnic populations, according to Peter Bibring, staff attorney at the ACLU/SC.

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