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U.S. Checking for Radiation at Muslim Sites
The U.S. government since 2002 has been using radiation detectors to monitor Muslim sites around Washington, D.C. and in at least five other cities, U.S. News and World Report reported last month (see GSN, Nov. 9, 2005). Sites monitored for potential nuclear weapons activity include homes, businesses, mosques and warehouses. Surveillance of these sites was often conducted without search warrants or court orders, even as agents entered private properties, according to sources familiar with the program. Some personnel involved in the monitoring questioned whether the program was legal and were subsequently threatened with job loss. Federal officials maintain that warrants are not needed to conduct the radiation monitoring, a claim disputed by some legal scholars. News of the radiation surveillance follows the recent revelation of a secret National Security Agency spying program in which U.S. citizens were monitored without warrants or court orders. The FBI and the Energy Department’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team operate the radiation watch program. At one point, three vehicles in Washington monitored 120 primarily Muslim sites each day. This occurred daily for 10 months and continues during high-threat periods. The program has also been used in Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Seattle, according to U.S. News. Surveillance in the Washington area included mosques and offices in Virginia and Maryland. Participants in the program “were tasked on a daily and nightly basis,” and Energy Department and FBI officials met often to update the list of sites being monitored, according to a source close to the program. “The targets were almost all U.S. citizens,” said the source. “A lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs. We were told it was perfectly legal.” However, questions exist about the legality of monitoring without a search warrant. Up to 15 percent of the surveillance was conducted from private property like driveways and parking lots in order to obtain accurate radiation readings. Government officials said that no warrant is needed to monitor from areas that could be accessed by the public. “If a delivery man can access it, so can we,” said one official. David Cole, a constitutional law expert and professor at Georgetown University, disputes this claim. He said that while public mosques and businesses might be acceptable for surveillance, private homes and offices are not. “They don't need a warrant to drive onto the property — the issue isn't where they are, but whether they're using a tactic to intrude on privacy. It seems to me that they are, and that they would need a warrant or probable cause,” he said. Cole said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that police needed a warrant to use heat sensors to detect lamps used to grow marijuana in private homes. However, officials close to the monitoring program said that radiation detectors differ because they are testing air. “This kind of program only detects particles in the air, it’s nondirectional,” one official said. “It's not a whole lot different from smelling marijuana.” Officials also deny the program targets Muslims. “We categorically do not target places of worship or entities solely based on ethnicity or religious affiliation,” said an official. “Our investigations are intelligence driven and based on a criminal predicate” (David Kaplan, U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 22, 2005). Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said news of the surveillance came as a “complete shock” to his group and to the Muslim community, the Associated Press reported. “This creates the appearance that Muslims are targeted simply for being Muslims. I don't think this is the message the government wants to send at this time,” he said. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said that the Bush administration “is very concerned with a growing body of sensitive reporting that continues to show al-Qaeda has a clear intention to obtain and ultimately use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear” weapons. To counter these threats, Roehrkasse said the government “monitors the air for imminent threats to health and safety,” but does so only in response to specific threats. “FBI agents do not intrude across any constitutionally protected areas without the proper legal authority,” he said (Larry Margasak, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Dec. 23, 2005).
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