ACLU Charges FBI With Illegally Collecting Information On Political and Religious Beliefs

In a press release issued Thursday, the ACLU charged that the FBI has been using its community outreach programs-- including its mosque outreach program-- to gather information for intelligence purposes, in violation of the Privacy Act. 5 USC 552a(e)(7) bars federal agencies, with certain exceptions, from maintaining records that describe an individual's exercise of First Amendment rights. An ACLU memo describes and links to the full text of various documents it obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests that led it to conclude that the FBI is illegally collecting and storing information on Americans' political and religious beliefs.