Bush and Co. Attack NYT for "Leaking" Well-Known Program
Posted by on June 27, 2006 at 03:48 PM
Yesterday the President, Vice President and various GOP Administration officials slammed The New York Times for reporting on the US monitoring of SWIFT transactions.
They attacked the paper for "leaking" the details of the program. But apparently that program has already been reported on and it's existance isn't exactly news:
Reports on US monitoring of SWIFT transactions have been out there for some time. The information was fairly well known by terrorism financing experts back in 2002. The UN Al Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Group , on which I served as the terrorism financing expert, learned of the practice during the course of our monitoring inquiries. The information was incorporated in our report to the UN Security Council in December 2002. That report is still available on the UN Website. Paragraph 31 of the report states:
“The settlement of international transactions is usually handled through correspondent banking relationships or large-value message and payment systems, such as the SWIFT, Fedwire or CHIPS systems in the United States of America. Such international clearance centres are critical to processing international banking transactions and are rich with payment information. The United States has begun to apply new monitoring techniques to spot and verify suspicious transactions. The Group recommends the adoption of similar mechanisms by other countries.”
So just a memo to the President and his pals: It's not a leak if people already know about it. And that goes double if it's the UN that has already told people.
Comments (14) «
Just another chance for the chimp to beat his chest....ewwww, what a man!!!!
IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST
IMPEACH THE BIG APE NEXT
How in the world can anyone conclude that leaking a "secret" program that monitors banking transactions be a threat to national security.
It would seem that a terrorist organization would already know that their banking transactions are monitored.
How is it a secret.
It should be safe to assume that the government is monitoring banking transactions because they are already monitoring telephone calls.
Why are the republicans complaining about this now?
The republicans must be desperate to come up with anything to suppress the 1st amendement.
The republicans seem to have a big problem with the 1st amendment.
the republicans are whining and complaining about a program that most people don't care about anyway.
if the government should be monitoring banking transactions as a matter of record.
all banking transactions are monitored by the government.
the mere fact that the monitoring could be used to track terrorists should not only be public knowledge...
...but if they weren't monitoring banking transactions and not applying it to the tracking of terrorists than and only then should anyone be worried.
The republicans are trying to eliminate the 1st amendment because they are out of touch with the rest of the world.
the rest of the world already knows that banking transactions are fair game for government monitoring.
banks are regulated by the government so why would anyone assume that the government doesn't monitor them for purposes of tracking terrorists.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE GETTING DESPERATE TO DEMONIZE THE NY TIMES AS A LIBERAL MEDIA OUTLET THAT IS UNPATRIOTIC.
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE NO ANSWERS.
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE NO SOLUTIONS.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE COWARDS WHO HIDE BEHIND THEIR OWN CRAP.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE AGAINST THE 1ST AMENDMENT.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE ONLY TRYING TO STAY IN POWER BY SPINNING LIES THAT EVERYONE IS OUT TO GET THEM.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE PARANOID BECAUSE THEY CAN NO LONGER FOOL ANYONE INTO THINKING THAT THEY HAVE AMERICAS BEST INTERESTS ON THEIR AGENDA.
The regressive republicans are insulting
the American people's intelligence!
King George doesn't want YOU to know what is going on in
YOUR GOVERNMENT!
Where is the full fledge investigation to determine who was behind the outing of Valerie Plame??
OOPS - Forgot - Bush already knows.
My blog deals extensively with this in a feature today. Click my blog below to read about my thoughts on the WASHINGTON WAR ON THE CONSTITUTION
PROGRESSIVE VALUES
How will the anti-Christ get his information?
NY Times is an American Publication Hero!!!!!!!
NY Times ... freedom of the press.
king george w bush ... suppress the press.
what the hell did America's forefathers' fight for?
surely not for king bush. 250 years ago, he'd be hanging from a tree courtesy of another George, President Washington.
How is practicing your constitutional right a act of treason. You can only be charged for treason if your intent was to harm the country. If he wants to talk about rteason then he should look within his own party at all the corrupt politicians who are harming our country.
Amar
http://www.americansdebate.com/
Dear Congressional Democrats who ignored Russ Feingolds call to Censure the President of the United Apes......
...feeling stupid yet? You should.
I want to hear the re-runs on the finance hunting the Bush Administration has been involved from the beginning. Bush told us a long time ago he would trace the money trail of where the finances are comming from. Now we have learned how he planned to trace them.
This is a lot of to do about something we knew from the beginning. What kind of fool does the Republicans think the people are?
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