Classified information in Washington is more or less currency, to be used by politicians. This phenomenon of selectively revealing secrets is of course is not limited to Washington. Anywhere people congregate and vie for power there will always be the manipulation of information for selfish interests. Machiavelli is still a household name in politics over 400 years later for a reason.

Leaks can be made to denigrate the opposition, place blame or simply shift media focus onto some other story du jour. If that is the intention of the leakers of late, with the stories about CIA flights, government wire taps and now the radiation surveillance program, they should start thinking twice about hurting the Bush administration with this information.

The most recent leaked story which should help to propel the Bush approval ratings higher was printed in U.S. News and World Report Friday. An exclusive headline blared that the government was monitoring for radiation near Muslim sites without a search warrant.

The article raises questions as to whether or not a warrant should be issued to monitor public and private areas for radiation. The article brings up a case involving lamps for the growing of marijuana in which Justice Scalia opined that warrants were necessary for such activity.

Pardon me if I suggest that radiation detection is a galaxy away in importance. I care if my neighbor gets pinched for growing some weed in his cellar by a helicopter flying over his house. I don't care if a radical is captured for possessing material that might be used in construction of a dirty bomb. If his civil rights have been violated we can certainly adjudicate that subject after he is in custody and his materials confiscated.

I am similarly not too concerned in this case with profiling. I want the government profiling any individual or group of individuals who has privately or publicly stated their interest or intention to acquire nuclear materials for the purposes of unleashing it upon our populace. Any person in government who argues against this type of strategy should not be trusted with anything to important.

This type of thinking must resonate with the rest of the public because since the revelations by the NY Times, Bush's poll numbers have been rising steadily, If it was their intention to damage him, they may have unwittingly given him a boost he otherwise might not have gotten. So too with this new report. As soon as I read it I thought to myself that is exactly what I would want done if I was the boss. A few more leaks like this and Bush will be at 60%.

Phil Gallagher 12 24 05