Is there compelling argument against the NYT finance tracking story?

[BurtWorm]

Of course that argument is not offered by Bush. This is that idiot's incoherent argument according to the Times:

"If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money," the president said. "And that's exactly what we're doing. And the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror."

Is it likely that the terrorists who attacked the US on 9/11 didn't know the US would try to track them by following the money? So what did the Times story compromise, except more snooping by the Bushists in the name of national security? Is there a real, intelligent rational argument against the Times's running the piece? Anyone care to take a crack at it?

[pepperbear]

1. I don't think the WH is pissed because the NYT revealed...

...the finance tapping of possible terrorists. I think they were pissed that they revealed the possible finance tapping of ordinary Americans.

[BurtWorm]

6. My first thought exactly.

The fury King is expressing seems way out of proportion to me. Unless he, too, is pissed that ordinary Americans have been given yet another reason to mistrust Bush and the Republicans. But that's no crime as far as I can tell.

[fishwax]

2. no, there's not

And yeah, didn't everybody know part of tracking terrorists was following the money?

[Roland99]

3. Supreme Court opinions re: the Pentagon Papers are relevant now >>>>>>>>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2697689&mesg_id=2697689

[lyonn]

7. IfIcandream posted a govt. web site on your post that explains

how bush is full of it with his latest comments about his big secret as to his terrorist money trail project.

Edit: It was a Nov. 2001 presidental statement.

[Roland99]

12. And the liberal media will be sure to blast that all over the news, eh?

:sarcasm:

[lyonn]

4. As I recall, after 9-11, the media was spouting about how

the govt. was in the process of tracking terrorist money that had come into this country through charitable organizations, Muslim in particular, and some lead to one of the Sheiks' wives, another lead to an organization here in the U.S. which was all over the news for awhile. That is why this looks like smoke and mirrors.

[lapfog_1]

10. Not just the media, Bush and Ashcroft were all over the airwaves

talking about how they were going to follow the money trail, especially the Islamic charities and other front organizations.

[Rose Siding]

5. The bushies are in overdrive to derail this story

Successfully, too - King's remarks, a word from Cheney, then from bush by the time he's up to speed a day later. The press would much rather talk about themselves and their "job" than a complex scoop by their competitors.

And it is a complex story that *needs* fleshing out. I don't know how it affects me beyond the fact that govt power is growing in ways we don't even know about.

[BurtWorm]

8. Executive power is what's growing in a way unhealthy to the republic.

The Bushists are creating exactly the sort of tyranny the American revolution was fought to end for all time.

[uppityperson]

9. No. eom

[Oilwellian]

11. In Bush's own words while on the campaign trail.....

I'll tell you another good thing that happened. Before September the 11th, investigators had better tools to fight organized crime than to fight international terrorism. That was the reality. For years, law enforcement used so-called roving wire taps to investigate organized crime. You see, what that meant is if you got a wire tap by court order -- and, by the way, everything you hear about requires court order, requires there to be permission from a FISA court, for example.

So the crime boss, he'd be on the cell phone, maybe thinking somebody is listening to him, would toss the cell phone and get on another cell phone. And the law allowed for our drug busters to follow the person making the calls, not just a single phone number. So it made it more difficult for a drug lord to evade the net that we were trying to throw on him to capture him with.

We couldn't use roving wire taps for terrorists. In other words, terrorists could switch phones and we couldn't follow them. The Patriot Act changed that, and now we have the essential tool. See, with court approval, we have long used roving wire taps to lock up monsters -- mobsters. Now we have a chance to lock up monsters, terrorist monsters. (Laughter and applause.)

The Patriot Act authorizes what are called delayed notification search warrants. I'm not a lawyer, either. (Laughter.) These allow law enforcement personnel, with court approval, to carry out a lawful search without tipping off suspects and giving them a chance to flee or destroy evidence. It is an important part of conducting operations against organized groups.

Before September the 11th, the standards for these kind of warrants were different around the country. It made it hard to have kind of a national strategy to chase down what might be a terrorist group. The Patriot Act provided a clear national standard and now allows these warrants to be used in terrorism cases. And they're an important tool for those who are on the front line of using necessary means, with court order, to find these terrorists before they hurt us. Look, what I'm telling you is, is that the Patriot Act made it easier for people we've tasked to protect America. That's what we want. We want people to have the tools necessary to do the job we expect them to do.

Before September the 11th, law enforcement could more easily obtain business and financial records of white-collar criminals than of suspected terrorists. See, part of the way to make sure that we catch terrorists is we chase money trails. And yet it was easier to chase a money trail with a white-collar criminal than it was a terrorist. The Patriot Act ended this double standard and it made it easier for investigators to catch suspected terrorists by following paper trails here in America.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040419-4.html


See, it's ok for Bush to expose our "intelligence secrets" if it helps the Republicans politically.