Elmont Online

NEW YORK -- The grainy photos look like they could have come from any undercover police file: A man in jeans talking on his cell phone. Another in a jacket walking past a coffee shop. A car parked outside a grocery store.

But the photos were not part of a criminal case. They were taken as part of secret New York Police Department intelligence program that singled out people and businesses based on their ethnicity.

Police documents obtained by The Associated Press describe in detail an NYPD program to build a database of daily life, including where people worked and prayed.

It started with one group, Moroccans, but the documents show police intended to build intelligence files on other ethnicities.

It was called the Moroccan Initiative. The goal, officials said, was a database so complete that if police ever received a tip about a Moroccan terrorist, they would have the community at their fingertips.

"In America, you don't put people under suspicion without good reason," said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who has urged the Justice Department to investigate.

The AP previously revealed the NYPD intelligence unit's efforts to map the Muslim community, monitor ethnic neighborhoods and scrutinize mosques. The Moroccan Initiative was one of its projects.

Such programs began with help from the CIA under President George W. Bush and have continued with at least the tacit support of President Barack Obama, whose administration repeatedly has sidestepped questions about them. It is unclear whether Mayor Michael Bloomberg oversaw the programs.

Police were told there was no specific threat from Moroccans, officials said, but they were told to gather intelligence because of concerns about Moroccan terrorists.

Also, the NYPD has said intelligence officers do not use racial profiling or trawl ethnic neighborhoods.