The New York Times reports that at least six Islamic groups are under surveillance in the United States for suspected links to Al Qaeda.

Most of the individuals whose movements and communications are being closely tracked are believed to be sympathizers of Osama bin Laden who may be engaged in low-level support activities for the Qaeda terror network, like raising money, relaying messages and recruiting new members, American and European officials said. The officials insisted that no evidence had emerged that any of the suspects were preparing an attack or posed any imminent threat.

American officials have limited their actions so far to intensive surveillance of the suspects, who they say are spread across 40 states, in order to gather more information about their plans and organization, the officials said. The decision to continue the surveillance, rather than to detain some suspects, reflects a strategic shift by United States government investigators. They said they had concluded that at this stage it was more valuable to try to learn more about the groups’ activities and possible plans through extended observation.

“By taking a group down too early, you may be losing a lot of opportunity for great intelligence,” said a senior government official in the United States, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Who are their associates? Who else is out there that we don’t know of that these individuals may contact?”

I should note, however, that the term “Islamic groups” is my interpretation of the story; the Times doesn’t use the word “Islamic” once in the entire article. This is a growing trend I’ve been noticing; there seems to be a concerted effort in the liberal PC-obsessed media to create a false dichotomy between “Al Qaeda” and “Islam.”