UK testing high-tech CCTV units to spy on Muslims

Britain's national security service MI5 is testing surveillance cameras in Muslim-dominated areas as part of a controversial scheme that the government claims is aimed at curbing extremism.

Based on the latest satellite technology, the $10,000 cameras have a ring of eight powerful lenses that can provide a panoramic view.

The system’s software can also indicate up to 50 behavior patterns to identify a person "as a potential terrorist."

Within a year, the surveillance cameras will be ably to identify "facial movements indicating tension and other furtive behavior," a MI5 officer said, according to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Known as "The Bug," the camera can identify "individual groups loitering or acting in a suspicious manner," the officer added.

When a target is identified, a ninth lens mounted on the base of the system zooms in and follows every move of the suspect.

"It can track him down a street, in and out of a building and follow him as he drives away," said the MI5 officer.

According to G2 Bulletin, the cameras have been tested in Muslim areas of London, Bradford, Luton and other Midland cities.

The installation of CCTV units in Muslim areas is among other radical measures imposed by the British government following the July 7, 2005 bomb attacks on London’s transport system.

Many of Britain's 1.7 million Muslims have complained of being unfairly targeted by the police after the attacks.

British Muslim leaders warn that the government’s approach to tackling extremists includes radical measures such as racial and religious profiling of Muslims that could backfire and hamper efforts to integrate them into the British society, something the government has long claimed it’s trying to avoid.

-- AJP and Agencies