WH spent four years "bragging" publicly about Swift program

[BurtWorm]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/06/28/terrorist_funds_tracking_no_secret_some_say?mode=PF

Terrorist funds-tracking no secret, some say
Cite White House boasts of tighter monitoring system

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | June 28, 2006

...


On Monday, President Bush said it was ``disgraceful" that The New York Times and other media outlets reported last week that the US government was quietly monitoring international financial transactions handled by an industry-owned cooperative in Belgium called the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communication, or SWIFT, which is controlled by nearly 8,000 institutions in 20 countries. The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal also reported about the program.

....

But a search of public records -- government documents posted on the Internet, congressional testimony, guidelines for bank examiners, and even an executive order President Bush signed in September 2001 -- describe how US authorities have openly sought new tools to track terrorist financing since 2001. That includes getting access to information about terrorist-linked wire transfers and other transactions, including those that travel through SWIFT.

``There have been public references to SWIFT before," said Roger Cressey, a senior White House counterterrorism official until 2003. ``The White House is overreaching when they say a crime against the war on terror. It has been in the public domain before."

Victor D. Comras , a former US diplomat who oversaw efforts at the United Nations to improve international measures to combat terror financing, said it was common knowledge that worldwide financial transactions were being closely monitored for links to terrorists. ``A lot of people were aware that this was going on," said Comras, one of a half-dozen financial experts UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recruited for the task.

``Unless they were pretty dumb, they had to assume" their transactions were being monitored, Comras said of terrorist groups. ``We have spent the last four years bragging how effective we have been in tracking terrorist financing."


...

[wakeme2008]

1. Lot of Repugs with egg on their faces today

:)

[Quantess]

15. Yes, that would be the expected result, but,

B*sh lovers have an uncanny knack for selective denial.

Can't win 'em all. But, reasonable people will adjust accordingly to this information.

[slestak]

17. You'd think

But they're a shameless lot. They'll just quickly find something else to be righteously indignant about.

[Divine Discontent]

36. yes there is!

but as is par for the course, they stick their heads onto the frying pan, burn off the eggs, and start a new day of complete and UTTER bullshit..



www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<<--- check it out!

[bryant69]

2. I'm sure they are reading a "why remind them"response

Just as they did with the warrentless wiretap process.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[BurtWorm]

3. Reminding is treason.

:patriot:

[NanceGreggs]

4. Yuppers, I remember the BRAGGIN' part ...

... about how they had tracked down suspected terrorist funds through vetting banking records. Apparently this became 'top secret' again last week? WTF?

This is what happens when you lie all the time -- it becomes impossible to keep all of your stories straight.

[tanyev]

37. There is no reality; there is no past.

There is only the truth as determined by the Ministry of Truth.

[Crazy Dave]

5. Listening to the "experts"

They've all said that the terrorists have known about this program all along and most of them move money around in ways that they don't know about like say, oil barrels stuffed with cash versus crude. The SWIFT program, like the wire-tapping, was conveniently put into place under the guise of "fighting terrorism" so that the government could spy on more Americans and their finances.

"Well, while we were looking for terrorists, we accidentally stumbled upon $2 million that so and so didn't claim on their taxes, etc."

That kind of stuff.

[XelKarin]

19. like say, oil barrels stuffed with cash versus crude

There's a difference?

[Higans]

24. Good Point. Oil vs. Money whats the damn diffrence???

[newyawker99]

29. Hi XelKarin!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LiberalFighter]

35. There was an article shortly after 9/11 about their bank system

They used a system that did not use financial institutions.

Al Qaeda's Road Paved With Gold --- Secret Shipments Traced Through a Lax System In United Arab Emirates

Just as the United States and its allies swept toward Afghanistan's main cities last autumn, the ruling Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network sent waves of couriers with bars of gold and bundles ofdollars across the porous border into Pakistan.

In small shops and businesses along the border, the money and gold, taken from Afghanistan's banks and national coffers, were collected and moved by trusted Taliban and al Qaeda operatives to the port city of Karachi, Pakistan, according to sources familiar with the events.

Then, using couriers and the virtually untraceable hawala money transfer system, they transferred millions of dollars to this desert sheikdom, where the assets were converted to gold bullion. The riches of the Taliban and al Qaeda were subsequently scattered around the world -- including some that went to the United States -- through a financial structure that has been little affected by the international efforts to seize suspected terrorist assets.

...
Dubai is also one of the region's most open banking centers and is the commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates, one of three countries that maintained diplomatic relations with the Taliban until shortly after Sept. 11. Sitting at a strategic crossroad of the Persian Gulf, South Asia and Africa, Dubai has long been a financial hub for Islamic militant groups. Much of the $500,000 used to fund the Sept. 11 attacks came through Dubai, investigators believe.

HEY DUBAI is mentioned!!!

Remember BCCI? It is mentioned too

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. This is not about the SWIFT program; it's about the NYT

Bush is trying to take down the NYT as "the paper of record" and fully discredit it, IMO.

This is cutnpaste from another thread, but because it's faster than typing...

If you recall the history of Dan Rather and Bush, first there was with his Dad then there was the interview with Saddam just prior to the Iraq invasion. You know, the one where Saddam said that he had no WMD. The one where he said bring in the inspectors. Then, there was the set-up and Rather's fate was sealed.

So, on to the New York Times. First, there was the FISA snub/NSA story that they held for an entire year at the request of Bushetal. The reporter took leave of absence to write a book about it. NYT still held the story till AFTER the election and certification of the vote. Then there was Judy Miller...key at getting dis-information stories published by the NYT. Of course, now she's gone, Scooter's up on charges, and Rove's ...well, Rove's fate is still unresolved. Just imagine if the NYT still had Judy there! Not to mention that it was the NYT that published Joe Wilson's infamous "What I Didn't Find in Africa".

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[Imalittleteapot]

11. Absolutely! All about NYT.

WSJ printed same info. Why are the Bushinistas going after them?

[Ganja Ninja]

13. Declaring the NY Times a tool of the left plays well with the base

and serves as a smoke screen to mask the times real function, a tool for the Bush cabal.

[whatelseisnew]

7. What was new in this recycled news article printed by the NYT?

seems like a classic goodcop/badcop operation to shore up NYT waining credibilty.

[farmbo]

8. Who cares if its a lie..."Disgraceful" tested high in Rove's focus groups.

Why not just make sh#! up if your base is clueless enough to get riled up over it?!

[EFerrari]

9. Yep, and what the "base" will remember are the charges

not how craven they were. It's like an innoculation.

[SmokingJacket]

10. Hey -- nice to see confirmation of what I already thought.

They talk about tracking "terrist" transactions ALL the time -- looking for suspicious movements of money. How would they do that unless they looked at innocent people's records, too?

[EVDebs]

12. Funny, but *'s "pre 9-11 NSA policy shift" was to ignore terrorist funding

according to Greg Palast's report in

Khan Job:
Bush Spiked Probe of Pakistan’s Dr. Strangelove, BBC reported in 2001
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=312

""A top-level CIA operative who spoke with us on condition of strictest anonymity said that, after Bush took office, "There was a major policy shift" at the National Security Agency. Investigators were ordered to "back off " from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi royals and their retainers. That put the Bin Ladens, a family worth a reported $12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off limits for investigation. Osama was the exception; he remained a wanted man, but agents could not look too closely at how he filled his piggy bank. The key rule of any investigation, "follow the money," was now violated, and investigations-at least before September 11-began to die. ""

[grannylib]

28. Well of course they can't go after SAUDI money...it's the same as BFEE

money, those two families have been in financial bed together for so long...

They'd have to have a conscience to feel any sense of shame over their filthy lies about this (and other items too numerous to mention)...

It's not a secret, never was, the only thing 'disgraceful' about this is the Unelected Imbecile's response.

[Roland99]

14. And the liberal media will be sure to set things straight!

:rofl:

[Maestro]

16. I was wondering about that as well.

I remember very well reports here in the local Dallas media about how the government was going after those that "financed terror." So what the NYT published didn't seem like a revelation to me at all. :shrug:

[Deep13]

18. Remember the new standard for whistle blowing:

government crime: good

talking about government crime: bad

ridiculing whistle blowers: good

[chill_wind]

20. Good on The Boston Globe, and I hope C-Span

gets 100 morning callers quoting and reciting.

And I hope Dems have 10-foot high posters and timelines of the WH's prior behavior on this matter if and when the Republican Bushlers ever get their precious NYT investigashun......

And by the way, where exactly ARE the Dems on this latest insanity..?

K&R

[katty]

23. Investigation w/die, no specifics-they have no leg to argue on

[CorruptedLamb]

21. Hate to be in dissent here.... But,

Discussing the fact that there are "financial tools" and assistance from SWIFT is a slightly different issue than fully describing an actual running operation. And obviously they (the terrorist) are dumb enough, since they have actually identified and captured people using the system.

Can anyone here say Bali?

I mean, I like my night clubs air conditioned, but with a roof.

[BurtWorm]

22. Can anyone here say what does Bali have to do with Bush WOT?

(War on the Times)

[newyawker99]

30. Hi CorruptedLamb!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[msatty99]

25. Go ahead and indict the NYT

I would really like to see that kind of bullsh*t happen...but it WON'T cause these losers
are ALL YAP. If Bushco wasn't just a pissypants bully, he would indict and then we could
all see the BRAZEN FALSEHOODS of these PISSYPANTS GOPS in the light of day...

I am having trouble stopping my urge to PUKE AND VOMIT CONTINUALLY due to these CREEPS

and sadly, DEMS are so CRAVEN they allow this CRAP to go on.

help me stop retching!!!!!!!!!

they are making me incoherent

[KittyWampus]

26. Kpete just posted a thread about Pat Roberts revealing secret info.

they are looking really stupid about this.

[madmunchie]

27. How many video clips are out there of bushco talking about

"following the money" type of talk? Shouldn't that be compiled and played over and over again by somebody in the Democratic Party, Media and/or NY Times?

[4dsc]

31. OMG the rabid right talk radio

I a truck driver and as a hobby I listen to talk radio, specifically, rightwing talk radio.. And what I can tell you today is that they are rabidly talking about this article.. Its been all day and probably go all night too.. I tried calling a couple of the show's to put them "right" about this story but to no avail..

[burf]

32. KO took the Admin to the woodshed on this one

showed the SWIFT website and wondered if Bin Laden's bunch subscribes to the magazine SWIFT publishes. It was a hoot!

[orleans]

33. i saw the clips olberman ran of the freak yapping about this

and that since 2001. bush can add this to his: "things i really fucked up" list

yes, those clips can lead one to say to the republicans going after NYT: SHUT UP!

[nevergivein]

34. Check This For A Laugh: Jeff Gannon Tapped For New Post Of Media Czar

I am so worked up about this latest Bush & Co. crap-- what's next? Jailing journalists? Re-defining "free press". Most likely. Has there ever, ever been a more vile and loathsome crew in the White House than this????

Then I saw the "news item" titled "Jeff Gannon Tappped For New Post Of Media Czar" on Mantic Eye Blog and laughed at the probably prophetic irony. It's a joke now but soon---who knows? Whole story is at this link: www.manticeye.com/blog

(oh for an extra laugh, read the previous post on Mantic Eye about Tom Cruise...)