Bush slams leak of terror finance story

[sabra]

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/14905622.htm

Bush slams leak of terror finance story
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday sharply condemned the disclosure of a secret anti-terrorism program that taps into an immense international database of confidential financial records. "The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he said.

"For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said. He said the disclosure of the program "makes it harder to win this war on terror."

The program has been going on since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It was disclosed last week by several news organizations.

...

"Congress was briefed and what we did was fully authorized under the law," Bush said, talking with reporters in the Roosevelt Room after meeting with groups that support U.S. troops in Iraq.

[babylonsister]

1. And I condemn Il Dunce and his cronies for outing V. Plame,

and that did great harm to the U.S.
You can't have it both ways.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. He just hates getting caught with his pants down. n/t

[saigon68]

4. He'd better get a pair of suspenders

[zann725]

9. When 'the Eemperor has no clothes"...there are NO pants to fall down.

And every "leak" keeps reminding Shrubco that the world is repeatedly seeing the Emperor without his 'clothes.' An UN-spinnable fact, sadly for the Right and Repugs.

But time for Dems to stand up and unite! Our 'time' at last has come.

[MrPrax]

3. NYtimes is guilty...

of putting the information together in a way that the public can properly digest it:

Reports of US Monitoring of SWIFT Transactions Are Not New: The Practice Has Been Known By Terrorism Financing Experts For Some Time
By Victor Comras

Yesterday’s New York Times Story on US monitoring of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) transactions certainly hit the street with a splash. It awoke the general public to the practice. In that sense, it was truly new news. But 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.”

Suggestions that SWIFT and other similar transactions should be monitored by investigative agencies dealing with terrorism, money laundering and other criminal activity have been out there for some time. An MIT paper discussed the pros and cons of such practices back in 1995. Canada’s Financial Intelligence Unit, FINTRAC,, for one, has acknowledged receiving information on Canadian origin SWIFT transactions since 2002. Of course, this info is provided by the banks themselves.

Linked via Raw Story
Direct link to CounterTerrorism Blog

It seems the Admin had no problem mentioning it in a UN report...so why all the fuss now. Seems like a nerve has been struck and maybe other news agencies should start digging at to what precisely might be providing discomfort to the Chimp and his retinue of criminals...

Can't imagine whether tracking financial records will provide much info to terrah-ists, but I can imagine that a lot of the information could go a long way to in making powerful and wealthy people even more powerful and wealthy.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

5. Why doesn't bush just cut to the chase already.....

The Constitution & especially Freedom Of The Press are making it too hard to be president & the only way he can work is to declare a dictatorship.

[Amonester]

13. Yes. And the only way he can continue not to work as he does

(except for signing un-constitutional signing statements that make the Executive branch above the law) is to resign.

[gratuitous]

6. Not so much upset that the news is public

But that the American public knows the news. That's what really curdles the cream in Chimpy's coffee.

[daleo]

7. Do rich people want the government snooping around

In their bank accounts? One might think this is a pretty sensitive subject among people that have influence with government.

[sabra]

8. Belgium is already curious about this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2356437

[rocktivity]

10. For the two millionth time: SHOW PROBABLE CAUSE AND GET A WARRANT!

What has this guy got against probable cause, anyway?

:mad:
rocknation

[Supersedeas]

11. Blame blame blame the messenger-as if the Terrorist would've never thought

to be careful....but innocent American's and businessmen who want secure transactions are left to wander blindly.

[HuffleClaw]

12. yet one more blatant attempt to shore up the crumbling support of

the far right base, who are the only folks who support such crap. the rest of the public is thinking, 'WTF??'

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. We're still waiting for Bush to fire the Plame leaker

but instead he prefers to threaten whistle-blowers. Now why would he do that?

[Rex]

15. No wonder America is 'circling the rim'

we have Repukes trying to fathom what should be legal and illegal. Last time I checked, it was all spelled out in the Constitution. These guys ever LOOK at that document? Ever!?

[fshrink]

16. When media dare to tell the truth, it's disgraceful.

Of course, it's the truth itself which is disgraceful to these neo-nazis.

[Roland99]

17. Well, the Supreme Court had something to say about 30 years ago >>>>>

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

[young_at_heart]

18. Going to war for "personal" reasons also does great harm

The more we learn, the more we know it was Cheney/Rumsfeld's plan and nothing would stand in their way.