NYPD Keeps Close Watch On Muslims Who Change Their Names

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Source: Associated Press

NYPD Keeps Close Watch On Muslims Who Change Their Names

MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN 10/26/11 07:00 PM ET

NEW YORK — For generations, immigrants have shed their ancestral identities and taken new, Americanized names as they found their place in the melting pot. For Muslims in New York, that rite of assimilation is now seen by police as a possible red flag in the hunt for terrorists.

The New York Police Department monitors everyone in the city who changes his or her name, according to interviews and internal police documents obtained by The Associated Press. For those whose names sound Arabic or might be from Muslim countries, police run comprehensive background checks that include reviewing travel records, criminal histories, business licenses and immigration documents.

All this is recorded in police databases for supervisors, who review the names and select a handful of people for police to visit.

The program was conceived as a tripwire for police in the difficult hunt for homegrown terrorists, where there are no widely agreed upon warning signs. Like other NYPD intelligence programs created in the past decade, this one involved monitoring behavior protected by the First Amendment.

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/nypd-shadows-muslims-who-_n_1032834.html