NYPD's Investigation of Mosques Seen as Terrorist Organizations Without Full Proof Comes Under Fire

The New York Police Department secretly marked certain mosques as terrorist organizations, allowing officials to spy on them without entire proof of suspicious activity.

According to ABC News, the NYPD's move not only authorized investigations on sermons and imams, but also made anyone in attendance of prayer services a suspect, therefore allowing surveillance on those individuals.

Interviews and confidential police documents revealed that there have been at least a dozen TEIs, or "terrorist enterprise investigations," performed on mosques since the Sept. 11 attacks. Although the NYPD has not charged any mosque as a terrorist organization, several investigations have gone on for years.

The police files also show how numerous Muslims in New York were innocent. ABC News reported the investigations into mosques as potential terrorist organizations without solid evidence is so invasive that even the FBI hasn't conducted one, meanwhile the NYPD has performed at least 12.

While carrying out the invasive mosque investigations, the NYPD has sent undercover officials in as an attempt to infiltrate administration in the mosques and one Arab-American group based in Brooklyn, whose leader has worked with city authorities and Bill de Blasio, a mayoral candidate.

All of the information regarding the newly-revealed tactics of the NYPD's terrorist investigations can be found in the new book "Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden's Final Plot Against America," written by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman of The Associated Press. The reporters interviewed current and former members of the NYPD, CIA, and FBI and obtained hundreds of unpublished police documents.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defended the investigation program as necessary ever since the attacks on 9/11.

"We follow leads wherever they take us," Kelly said. "We're not intimidated as to wherever that lead takes us. And we're doing that to protect the people of New York City."

The American Civil Liberties Union, in addition to two other groups, have sued claiming the investigations are unconstitutional and scare Muslims from openly practicing their faith.