From YNet News:
U.S. News and World Report reveals American government launched a top secret search for terrorists believed to be in possession of ‘dirty bomb’; authorities conducting tests in hundreds of Muslim sites to detect radioactive activity.
The U.S. government has launched a top secret search for terrorists believed to be in possession of a ‘dirty bomb’ (radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives), the U.S. News and World Report revealed on its website Friday.
According to the report, authorities are conducting tests in hundreds of Muslim sites, including mosques, homes, businesses and warehouses to detect radioactive activity.
The explosion of a ‘dirty bomb’ leaves considerable radioactive contamination, and since September 11 U.S. intelligence agencies are following the efforts of international terror groups, such as al-Qaeda, to obtain the bomb.
Experts contend that the impact of a ‘dirty bomb’ would be disastrous, with thousands killed and downtowns rendered uninhabitable.
According to the report, in the United States there are thousands of lost, stolen, or discarded radioactive sources – dubbed “orphans” by regulators. No comprehensive registry exists of radioactive devices, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) estimates that in America one new radioactive source is orphaned every day. About 50 of them are found by the public each year, along roadsides, in dumps, and at recycling centers.
[…]
The search, which the U.S. News and World Report says is being conducted without a court order, is focusing on Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle and Las Vegas.
A recent New York Times report revealed that President George W. Bush secretly authorized telephone taps on terror suspects in the U.S. without court warrants.
The supervision over nuclear-related activity in the U.S. increased in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when authorities feared al-Qaeda would attempt to organize a nuclear attack in the country. Just two weeks after the attacks the Pentagon received information pointing to the possibility that the terror group smuggled nuclear apparatus into New York, but nothing was found.
However, documents found in an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan proved that the Islamic terror network is indeed interested in obtaining nuclear weapons.
(via Allah)
Some will continue to make the argument that when we lose our “civil liberties” [understood how?—as computers doing data mining on Al Qaeda phone chains?], the terrorists will have already won™
Well, maybe so. But let me counter with this point: if a dirty bomb is successfully detonated in NY or LA or DC, the terrorist MOST DEFINITELY will have won.
Sometimes it’s worth pointing out that not everything at stake here is a legalistic debating point.
If Tom Daschle is really saying today that Democrats were unwilling to allow the President to protect the homeland by gathering intelligence from al Qaeda operatives here in the US, I think he’s not only pointing out just how unserious some Democrats are about national security—but I think he’s likewise opening the Democrats up to a huge public backlash.
Appearing on FOXNews just now, Democratic strategist Steve Murphy is furious that Bush’s critics have made an issue out of the NSA spy case, noting that the Democrats’ hatred for Bush has adversely affected their political judgment (agreeing with my earlier assessments of how this story will play politically). Which means it’s perhaps time for those who attacked my political acumen to have a chat with a few of their own. Best to slap the dissenters back into line, right? After all, now is not the time for anything but a united front.
The estimates of those who would be killed by a “dirty bomb” are a bit hysterical. Unfortunately, that really is a “dirty bomb“‘s biggest effect: hysteria.
On a related note, Rasmussen’s robots have Bush’s approval at 50%, up six from last week.
The NYT-Democrat axis of idiocy—can’t ask for a better Xmas present.
1. Thank God
2. Thank Bush
3. Otherwise, not terribly surprising.
I really didn’t believe that the media and many Democrats were on the other side. But, consider:
They suggest we scrap the Patriot Act, stop targeting terrorists overseas and stop coercing those we capture to make them talk. They seem to believe that if we make it more difficult for our spies to snoop, if we retreat from Iraq, leaving the battlefield to Saddam Hussein loyalists and al-Qaeda we’ll be okay. (Stolen, in part, from Cliff May over at the Corner)
They seem to want our enemies to know everything we’re doing and want to hamstring everything we’re doing stop our enemies. This is getting freaking ridiculous.
I’m wondering when the American public will turn on the media and the far Left the way most Iraqis have turned on the terrorists there.
You just gotta love the breathlessness with which these disclosures of “top secret” searches are presented. Add in the hilarious reporting that executive branch law enforcement and investigatory personnel are doing their job “without a court order” and we’re clearly one step away from…well…something nefarious.
Everyone knows a “search” requires a search warrant or a court order. Right?
But then, if you actually read past the alarmist headline on the U.S. News home page, “Feds monitor Muslims without warrants,” you’ll learn that all that is occurring is air sampling on property accessable to the public.
But if such activity gets your panties in a bunch, the question is: when petitioning for a search warrant, what are you searching?
The air. (Now stop laughing.)
Another non-story.
Just when I thought it could not get any worse. The Bush Administration has had years to create an intelligence apparatus. But he has completely failed at keeping mission critical information out of the hands of the media. I’m not sure I particuarly care if these things are legal or not at this point. My concern is the inability to keep secrets.
I would have to ask why the Dems aren’t calling for an Independent Investigation into whoever leaked the secrets that have clearly damaged national security and denied a major source of intel on potential threats.
But that would require that they be at all interested in the truth.
TW: Cry me a river
That’s been a problem for hundreds of years. If the Bush administration’s inability to completely stop leakers was a true showstopper, well shucks, we might as well have packed it in during WW-II since Klaus Fuchs handed over the goods on the fundamentals of atomic weapon design to the Soviets.
Now, if you’d argue that there’s a problem because no one seems intent on prosecuting these leakers, *that* I’d buy…
It gets worse. For years, the EPA has been monitoring the air and the water around my place for all kinds of stuff. And never once did they get a search warrant or permission from Tom Daschle. Where do I go to get my money for having my most cherished rights stomped on?
You think that’s bad? For years, the EPA insisted on sticking a sniffer right up my… car’s exhaust pipe.
Looks like some folks already are.
Is there anybody left in the spy agencies who hasn’t spilled his guts to the media?! I thought at least a CIA or FBI agent would be, you know, kind of partial to the United States and not tell the world and the bad guys what they are freaking doing.
Any who would think a mosque would be radioactive? Why, CAIR reveres the reason for Christmas!
This just in:
Fire wardens maintained watch over forests without court order!
State troopers used secret, high-tech radar to detect speeders without a warrant!
Honest to God, I saw the Kane County Public Health Department setting up monitoring devices this past summer. No warrants, no court orders – and if they think I am buying their “mosquito traps looking for West Nile Virus” line of B.S., they have another thing coming!