Cursor's Media Patrol - 12/26/05

FBI officials confirmed and defended the existence of a secret program -- first reported by U.S. News & World Report -- to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities, "although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained."

The revelation has reportedly "sent a shockwave across the Muslim community," where "many ... in the Washington area, as elsewhere, believe that they are under watch."

The Miami Herald's Robert Steinback "wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help."

Following comments by the former Secretary of State on ABC's "This Week," Left I on the News finds the New York Times again trying to 'put lipstick on Colin Powell."

The consistent message of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's latest tour of Iraq, according to the AP's Robert Burns, is that "the U.S. military is getting out," but the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Fox News Sunday that "you could see troop level go up a little bit," because "the enemy has a vote in this."

A study for the Transportation Department is said to "outline a public relations strategy ... to persuade the American public" that putting tamper-proof GPS Bugs in cars is "in their best interest," although "no restrictions prevent police from continually monitoring, without a court order, the whereabouts of every vehicle on the road.