Unwarranted Concern About Warrantless Radiation Checks

This has gotten to the silly point.

There is absolutely no reason to expect the federal government to seek a warrant before monitoring the air in public thoroughfares for the presence of radiation that would indicate the existence of terror weapons.

Yet, this is how MSNBC.com reported the Associated Press article:

U.S. has been secretly testing for radiation
Monitoring from public places was conducted without warrants, officials say

AP
Updated: 7:31 p.m. ET Dec. 23, 2005

A classified radiation monitoring program, conducted without warrants, has targeted private U.S. property in an effort to prevent an al-Qaida attack, federal law enforcement officials confirmed Friday.

While declining to provide details, including the number of cities and sites monitored, the officials said the air monitoring began after the Sept. 11 attacks and was conducted from publicly accessible areas, which they said made warrants and court orders unnecessary.

U.S. News and World Report first reported the program on Friday. The magazine said the monitoring was conducted at more than 100 Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C. area — including Maryland and Virginia suburbs — and at least five other cities when threat levels had risen: Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Seattle.