WASHINGTON, November 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. government has begun to monitor thousands of Iraqis in the United States, hoping to identify “terrorist” threats posed by sympathizers of Saddam Hussein, the New York Times reported Sunday, November 17.

The previously undisclosed intelligence program involves tracking Iraqi citizens and Iraqi-Americans with dual citizenship, who are attending American universities or working at private corporations who might pose a risk in the event of a United States-led war against Iraq.

Some of the targets are being electronically monitored under the authority of national security warrants. Others are being selected for recruitment as informants; the officials were reported as saying.

In the event of a U.S. invasion of Iraq, officials would intensify the program's mission through arrests and detentions of Iraqis and Iraq sympathizers if they are believed to be planning domestic terrorist operations, the Times wrote.

The new intelligence effort also seeks to assess whether the regime of Saddam Hussein has engaged in any actions -- through alliances with Middle Eastern terrorist organizations or efforts to obtain weapons -- that could threaten American interests at home or abroad.

The operation also seeks to trace the movement around the world of money by the Iraqi government, and organizations sympathetic with Iraq.

Next week federal authorities plan to begin interviewing Arab-Americans, asking them to report suspicious activity related to Iraq, a senior government official told the Times.

The interviews will be voluntary, but in the past, such efforts have been criticized by Arab-American groups. The FBI is planning to meet with Arab-American civic leaders to explain the non-classified aspects of the operation, officials said.

The operation mirrors a smaller program during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, during which the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service conducted thousands of interviews with Iraqis and other Arab-Americans in the United States and investigated hundreds of Iraqis who had entered the United States on visitors' visas.

The paper reported that "no one in the administration has formally proposed creating a domestic intelligence agency," adding that "several officials said dismantling the F.B.I. remained an uncertain prospect, but they said a wide range of ideas were likely to be considered with the creation of a Homeland Security Department."

Meanwhile, U.S. officials said Saturday that the U.S. government is working to bolster domestic intelligence gathering in hopes of finding and neutralizing possible sleeper terrorist cells before they have a chance to strike.

"The president is strongly committed to helping Director Mueller with the reorganization of the FBI undertaken since September 11 and is confident that the Federal Bureau of Investigation can respond" to future threats, said an administration official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said the reorganization was certain to result in "increasing its intelligence capabilities."

The reforms launched by FBI Director Robert Mueller in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York are designed to bolster the bureau's counterterrorism component.

And, according to law enforcement officials, the bureau's capability to collect intelligence inside the United States are being significantly enhanced along the way.

For starters, the FBI got rid of its Cold War-era National Security Division, replacing it with a Counterintelligence-Counterterrorism Division, according to a bureau official, who also wished to remain unidentified.

A team of Central Intelligence Agency analysts has been permanently posted at FBI headquarters to help share and process freshly-collected information.

"We've created the Office of Intelligence, the Law Enforcement Coordination Office," said the FBI official. "In the last over a year, there have been many changes from the organizational standpoint."

However, the officials dismissed earlier media reports that the White House was contemplating creating a separate government agency that would be fully dedicated to gathering intelligence inside the United States.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that top advisers to President George W. Bush were eyeing setting up a U.S. counterpart to Britain's MI5, which is allowed to collect domestic intelligence.

U.S. homeland security adviser Tom Ridge visited London this week to study Britain's experience and discuss future joint efforts in the war on terror.

But at the moment, the Bush administration is reluctant to beef up government bureaucracy by creating yet another intelligence agency and is focusing instead on revamping the FBI, the officials said.