FBI Official Defends Radiation Monitoring (program stopped)

AP/Yahoo News ^ | Dec. 23, 2005 | LARRY MARGASAK,

[nightdriver]

"The prudent and responsible thing to do would be to go medieval on their @sses."

Right!

It would also be the legal thing to do. Don't tell anyone, but islam has been illegal in the U.S. since 1892 (1893?).

[FairOpinion]

Excellent post!

[Peace will be here soon]

The EPA doesn`t need a warrant to shove a probe up the tailpipe of my car.

I find it curious that simply monitoring the air somehow requires a warrant now.

I guess I will ask for one the next time the emission inspection on my car is due.

[smoothsailing]

To add to the Michael Ledeen idea, this special grand jury could call in virtually anyone on the government payroll, I would imagine.Whoever leaked to US News & World Report could be "outed" in much the same way.

What sounds good to me about this is the leaks are stopped at the source.The media end is cut out of the loop and the whole thing is cleaned up with hopefully less publicity.

[kvanbrunt2]

I like your tag line i am wanting to call them mohammadmadmans myself.
prez need to get out. say what he is doing and let the people decide. most will say the same thing "riding around with Geiger counters is a good thing". If not we are all @$%&*^%^*

[SierraWasp]

"If, for instance, al qaeda was able to set off a nuclear weapon in this country, the niceties would be thrown out."

Until the above actually happens and Martial Law is declared, I don't agree that the US proper is part of the "battlefield!" It will be the battlefield of last resort, thanks to a most intelligent prosecution of the WOT so far by THIS administration.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, those of us out here in the west have seen enough clumsy heavy handed action by federal agents in the recent past of the Clinton maladministration that we're more than happy to wait for the real necessity of ANY declaration of "Martial Law!" Believe you me!!!

Many of us out here in the west are not so quick to seek security at the cost of our liberty. Maybe we can remember the wild, wild west better than those huddled masses yearning to breathe free in the eastern seaboard, who knows?

[CharlesWayneCT]

Not the entire country. It's just the democrats looking for any way they can find to stop Bush's poll numbers from rising, by attacking our country and hoping that hurting us will hurt our leader.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The cable company can drive around looking for illegal hookups by monitoring electromagnetic waves from the street.

I expect my goverment to be doing monitoring of the air for biological, chemical, and nuclear agents.

If they have a limited resource to do this, targetting places where they suspect they might find such activity is not only OK, it is the smart thing to do.

The constitution exists to prevent a slippery slope. I'm tired of arguing that we shouldn't do legal things because there's a chance they could turn illegal.

Especially while REALLY intrusive stuff like airport searches are carried out every day, costing us millions of hours and billions of dollars, and nobody seems to be fighting to stop THAT.

Physically searching me against my will as a condition for travel? That's a problem. Listening to my phone calls to Bin Laden, or noticing the glowing lights in my attic (hey, that's just electromagnetic radiation detected with sophisticated monitoring devices (eyes), or the high levels of radiation on someone's clothes, that's all fine with me.

I don't have a right to commit illegal activities simply by keeping them "private". the 4th amendment is to protect me from being harrassed by the government, not keeping the government from investigating and prosecuting ILLEGAL activity.

You have no right to break the law, any law, no matter how much you think the law is stupid.

BTW, using dogs to sniff people would, in my opinion, cross the line because being sniffed by a dog WOULD annoy me. But being watched by a TV camera on a public street? OK by me.

[okie01]

Why is there a need to defend such a sensible thing, to try to prevent a major catastrophy of a nuclear attack on a US city?!

From the sound of it, the program doesn't much different from prowl cars patrolling the streets in suspicious neighborhoods.

Last I heard, no warrant was necessary.

[okie01]

So when, under a Democrat-led administration, authorities decide that niceties such as search warrants are not required, you'll be happy to have BATF agents search your place for tobacco remains, as part of the war-on-cancer?

Prowl cars in high crime neighborhoods don't need a warrant to patrol the streets.

These "sniffer" vans shouldn't either.

[OldArmy52]

The MSM is the 5th column in this country...as is the DNC

[Dahoser]

When is the Stupid Party going to start demanding one? If the RATS aren't out there every day demanding a special prosecutor for any number of supposed transgressions, they're out there calling for W's impeachment. Meanhwile, the Republicans in Congress continue to hide under their desks.

[MJY1288]

It is frustrating

[oceanview]

we were talking in detail on the other thread about this - I am not surprised to see the link in this article to that SCOTUS decision.

[Wiseghy]

Another spin:

The US expected an imminent terrorist nuke attack in the days following 9-11, and did everything possible and legal to try to stop it. Fortunately, the attack never came to pass, but for weeks the WH and senior planners were in real agony over our extreme vulnerability and their relative helplessness to stop it.

This experience has shaped our foreign policy since.

[KarinG1]

So I can have plutonium in my house and it's a violation of my fourth amendment rights for the feds to monitor it? I'm not sure I'm happy with that much privacy.

[atomic conspiracy]

It is all a misunderstanding.

CAIR and the media tools have simply misread the relevant court rulings and confused the American right to privacy with the traditional Islamic right to piracy.

[Former Proud Canadian]

"Asked about the program's status, the official said, "I'd understood it had been stopped or significantly rolled back" as early as eight months ago."

I hope this is just disinformation.

[DBrow]

I went to CNN and this story is the lead today. They have a video of "Muslim reaction" and as expected "Muslims" are outraged at the warrantless intrusion, etc.

I think that someone is trying to do a little Islamic rabble rousing- perhaps as a leadup to riots as in France and Australia?

Why would I think so- well, there were two people interviewed, Mahdi Bray and Deedra Abboud. Although CNN just put up their names, I plunked them into my trusty search engine and learned that Mahdi Brey just coincidentally is the executive director of the Muslim American Society, and Deedra Abboud is, guess what, executive director of CAIR!

What a happenstance that CNN should randomly find these two and that they are outraged!

[angkor]

Three vehicles in Washington monitored 120 sites a day, nearly all of them Muslim targets identified by the FBI.

First, as a Northern Virginia citizen, I am personally comforted that the feds are monitoring the arms depots and recruiting stations (aka "mosques") of the Islamist demons.

The Dar al Hijra mosque in Falls Church is hopefully a prime surveillance target, since one of OBL's brothers was on the board and it is also the place where several 9/11 hijackers made the connections to get phony Virginia IDs. The recent report on Saudi Islamist literature ("Jews are pigs") included Dar al Hijra in its survey list.

Let's also pay close attention to the Skyline condos and apartments exactly one mile from Dar al Hijra at Bailey's Crossroads, which is stuffed to the rafters with Islamists and other terrorist sympathizers (see Paul Sperry's "Infiltration" for more). Immediately after 9/11, the FBI found numerous "recently vacated" apartments and condos at Skyline, and thne previous occupants weren't Euros, they were clearly of Arabic lineage.

Much more, but that should make anyone thankful for nuke monitoring.