Via Daily Kos.
U.S. News and World Report has the following exclusive:
In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned. In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the program. Some participants were threatened with loss of their jobs when they questioned the legality of the operation, according to these accounts. Federal officials familiar with the program maintain that warrants are unneeded for the kind of radiation sampling the operation entails, but some legal scholars disagree. News of the program comes in the wake of revelations last week that, after 9/11, the Bush White House approved electronic surveillance of U.S. targets by the National Security Agency without court orders. These and other developments suggest that the federal government's domestic spying programs since 9/11 have been far broader than previously thought. The nuclear surveillance program began in early 2002 and has been run by the FBI and the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST). Two individuals, who declined to be named because the program is highly classified, spoke to U.S. News because of their concerns about the legality of the program. At its peak, they say, the effort involved three vehicles in Washington, D.C., monitoring 120 sites per day, nearly all of them Muslim targets drawn up by the FBI. For some ten months, officials conducted daily monitoring, and they have resumed daily checks during periods of high threat. The program has also operated in at least five other cities when threat levels there have risen: Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York, and Seattle.The FBI has responded saying no warrants were necessary for this type of monitoring. Even if we accept that as true, it appears that certain people were being singled out because of their religious affiliation with no suspicion or evidence of actual wrongdoing. Big wrong, people. BIG WRONG. It seems William Arkin was all too prophetic. Oh, and don't forget the Homeland Security database called Muslims of America. Wake up and smell the coffee. One could also ask how likely this sort of monitoring would be to actually pick up any "terrorist nuclear bombs". Again, there's no evidence yet that they had any suspicion of actual wrongdoing by any of the targets, they were just going on a fishing expedition in case there happened to be a "terrorist nuclear bomb" in some mosque or a Muslim's home or business. This seems like it would have been a huge waste of money. And of course there's the question of secret warrantless spying. Don't forget to re-read fifth column appears to be missing in action (or maybe it never existed) and FBI finds no sign of al-Qa'ida sleeper cells in America. Added: Other coverage: BBC, Daily Times of Pakistan, Detroit Free Press, CNN, NBC4, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Reuters.