Since 9/11, US governmental agencies have poured millions of dollars into spying on Arabs, Muslims and Arab-Americans. Their surveillance has changed countless lives as ordinary citizens all over the United States were interrogated, arrested or had their homes raided.
But this didn’t start in 2001. Invasive – and even illegal – surveillance programs against Arabs and Arab-Americans have a long history in the US, going all the way back to the 1970s, with a program code-named Operation Boulder. But it wasn’t until a lawyer named Abdeen Jabara took his own government to court that the true size and scale of the program was revealed.
This episode was produced by Suzanne Gaber and Will Thomson and edited by Dana Ballout and Alex Atack. Fact-checking by Deena Sabry. Additional support from Nadeen Shaker and Zeina Dowidar. Sound design and mixing by Paul Alouf.
*[Fair Observer is a media partner of the Kerning Cultures Network. Click here for a full list of shows in English and Arabic.]
The views expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.