The FBI and the Department of Energy have conducted thousands of searches for radioactive materials at private sites around the country in the last three years, government officials confirmed on Friday.
The existence of the search program was disclosed on Thursday by US News & World Report, on its Web site. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, government agencies have disclosed that they have installed radiation-detection equipment at ports, subway stations and other public locations, but extensive surreptitious monitoring of private property has not been publicly known.
The federal government has given thousands of radiation alarms, worn like cell phones on the belt, to police and fire departments in major cities.
A spokesman for the Justice Department, Brian Roehrkasse, confirmed that law enforcement personnel were conducting "passive operations in publicly accessible areas to detect the presence of radiological materials, in a manner that protects US constitutional rights."
US News, citing people it did not name, said many of the sites that federal agents had monitored were mosques or the homes or businesses of Muslims, and the report set off a dispute between a Muslim group here and the FBI.
The group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement: "This disturbing revelation, coupled with recent reports of surveillance without warrant, could lead to the perception that we are no longer ruled by law, but instead one in which fear trumps constitutional rights. All Americans should be concerned about the apparent trend toward a two-tiered system of justice, with full rights for most citizens, and another diminished set of rights for Muslims."
But John Miller, an assistant director of the FBI, said in a statement that his agency "does not target any group based on ethnicity, political or religious belief."
"When intelligence information suggests a threat to public safety, particularly involving weapons of mass destruction," the statement said, "investigators will go where the intelligence information takes them," he added.
According to a federal official, the investigators have visited hundreds of sites in Washington, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas and Seattle on multiple occasions, as well other locations for high-profile events like the Super Bowl. The surveillance was conducted outdoors, and no warrants were needed or sought, the official said, speaking anonymously.
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