NYT: Bank Data Secretly Reviewed by U.S. to Fight Terror

[DeepModem Mom]

Bank Data Secretly Reviewed by U.S. to Fight Terror
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
Published: June 22, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 22 - Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas or into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database.

Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia, the officials said. The program, run out of the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the Treasury Department, "has provided us with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use of our authorities," Stuart Levey, an undersecretary at the Treasury Department, said in an interview Thursday. The program is grounded in part on the president's emergency economic powers, Mr. Levey said, and multiple safeguards have been imposed to protect against any unwarranted searches of Americans' records.

The program, however, is a significant departure from typical practice in how the government acquires Americans' financial records. Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift.

That access to large amounts of sensitive data was highly unusual, several officials said, and stirred concerns inside the administration about legal and privacy issues....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/washington/22cnd-intel.html?ei=5094&en=3653468f88851bcd&hp=&ex=1151035200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all

[Mojorabbit]

1. Oh hell

Every day it's something else

[peacetalksforall]

2. When you thought you had heard it all. Brussels based! You know who

else is in Brussels, don't you? Paul Wolfkowitz. IMF - probably in the same building?

What a rip off. How outrageous!!!

Well, I'm beginning to think it's more about them watching their competition in the drug trade as well as the oil, nuclear, and weapons business. This has little to do with terror. And it's about finding little glitches so that they can steal more. I have no expectations for integrity. I've run out of prayers for saving this country.

What can't you know if you feed this stuff into the Poindexter marvel? Which other Iran-Contra partners have access?

All the claims in this one sound as lame as the other nicely worded announcements with the words "IT'S ONLY" this and "IT'S ONLY" that and look at all the criminals we've found because of it.

Combined with our debt to China, the loss of a right a day - I don't think we citizens have much more time in this country - they're coming for all of us who are not in the have-more printout.

I despise Greenspan. I despise these people for operating secret sub-governments of their own volition for their own control and greed, including the barons. I despise the people who condone this.

[sweetheart]

4. SWIFT is in bruxelles

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial TRansfers. This is like very offical bankwires of
large money amounts.. hardly a suprise that al q is not a big global banking user.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Brussels - Bruxelles (English-French) - if the al Queda network learned

about the tapping - they probably opted out of normal banking paths.

In hindsight, I'm intriqued with all the stories about the money transfers that they have publicized in their back slapping press releases.

I want to say that I don't believe anyone or anything - but when it's evil, it's easier to believe AND KNOW that it's our leaders who have done it.

[Rich Hunt]

16. excuse me....

but the terror business IS and always has been connected to the oil and drug trade.

Yeah, it's a fascist's wet dream that Americans would be dumb enough to think that "they're all coming for us."

Yawn.

[fshrink]

3. Minimum wage lowered to fight terror.

Sky's the limit.

[Rose Siding]

6. LAT: U.S. Mining Bank Transfer Data in Anti-Terror Effort

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government, without the knowledge of many banks and their customers, has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by reviewing confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide.

The program, run by the Treasury Department, is considered a potent weapon in the war on terrorism because of its ability to clandestinely monitor financial transactions and map terrorist webs.

Current and former officials at multiple U.S. agencies acknowledged the program's existence, but spoke on condition of anonymity, citing its sensitive nature. "We're very, very protective of it," said a senior U.S. official familiar with the program. "It is extremely valuable."

The program is part of an arsenal of aggressive measures the government has adopted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that yield new intelligence, but also circumvent traditional safeguards against abuse and raise concerns about intrusions on privacy.........MORE.........

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-swift23jun23,0,6482687.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[KeepItReal]

7. Wait, ain't these the *same* people who *didn't* look into 9/11 finances?

...and ignored all those folks who make a surprise fortune off the stock market in the days right after 9/11?

[HuffleClaw]

11. you bring up an EXCELLENT point

but its an issue that HAS been creeping back into the light recently.

[Poll_Blind]

8. Related: Information from U.S. companies helped Israel locate terror cells

Also breaking. Link here.

PB

[Rose Siding]

9. The bushies asked the Times not to publish this

Bush administration officials asked the Los Angeles Times not to publish information about the program, contending that disclosure could damage its effectiveness and that sufficient safeguards are in place to protect the public.

Dean Baquet, the editor of the Times, said, "We weighed the government's arguments carefully, but in the end we determined that it was in the public interest to publish information about the extraordinary reach of this program. It is part of the continuing national debate over the aggressive measures employed by the government."

[norml]

39. Argument against report puzzles NYT editors

Argument against report puzzles NYT editors


The Associated Press

Monday, June 26, 2006 12:11 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Times is defending itself from criticism about a report on secret financial monitoring of terrorists, saying it found arguments by Bush administration officials against publishing it "puzzling" and "half-hearted."

In a note on the paper's Web site Sunday, Executive Editor Bill Keller said the Times spent weeks discussing with Bush administration officials whether to publish the report.

He said part of the government's argument was that the anti-terror program would no longer be effective if it became known, because international bankers would be unwilling to cooperate and terrorists would find other ways to move money.

"We don't know what the banking consortium will do, but we found this argument puzzling," Keller said, pointing out that the banks were under subpoena to provide the information. "The Bush Administration and America itself may be unpopular in Europe these days, but policing the byways of international terror seems to have pretty strong support everywhere."

The note to readers was published the same day Rep. Peter King urged the Bush administration to prosecute the paper.


snip


http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1540762


Here's the LBN thread on this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2356595

[Rose Siding]

10. NYT has it: Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror -20 sources

-Much more in depth:

Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.
...
The program, run out of the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the Treasury Department, "has provided us with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use of our authorities," Stuart Levey, an under secretary at the Treasury Department, said in an interview on Thursday.

The program is grounded in part on the president's emergency economic powers, Mr. Levey said, and multiple safeguards have been imposed to protect against any unwarranted searches of Americans' records.

The program, however, is a significant departure from typical practice in how the government acquires Americans' financial records. Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html?hp&ex=1151035200&en=b721c2928a5d2c07&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Just Me]

40. Yet, ANOTHER breach of constitutional protections, I assume.

We live in a dictatorship. We are living in a freakin' dictatorship!!!

Can you believe this shit?!?! Phones, internet, homes, bank accounts all accessed without due process. I am just,...bullied over!!!

:wow:

These people are in power, for keeps. They know everything about everyone and are prepared to lie, cheat, steal,...The Machiavellian Regime,...that would be ours.

We're not getting back our country or heading towards democracy any time soon,...not unless these people are prosecuted for their crimes and THAT doesn't seem to be maturing anytime soon.

[Rose Siding]

12. Someone was really singing about this

Both the LAT and the NYT report that they were asked not to print it. I'm thinking that the timing of the release dovetails somehow with today's FL bust.

[Rich Hunt]

17. asked by WHOM??

Probably the same rich, terror-connected thieves who invest in certain media companies.

Tired of this shit. This lying, infiltrating, disinformationist bullshit about terror is so seventies.

What has happened to our educational system that people just swallow a bunch of paranoid b.s.

[lavenderdiva]

13. NYT: Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror

Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
Published: June 23, 2006
Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

snip:
The program, however, is a significant departure from typical practice in how the government acquires Americans' financial records. Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift.

That access to large amounts of confidential data was highly unusual, several officials said, and stirred concerns inside the administration about legal and privacy issues.

snip:
Nearly 20 current and former government officials and industry executives discussed aspects of the Swift operation with The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified. Some of those officials expressed reservations about the program, saying that what they viewed as an urgent, temporary measure had become permanent nearly five years later without specific Congressional approval or formal authorization.

snip:
Treasury officials said Swift was exempt from American laws restricting government access to private financial records because the cooperative was considered a messaging service, not a bank or financial institution.

Its a lengthy article, but an alarming one, and one that should be read in its entirety. Thank you Mr. Greenspan for your support of this program. :sarcasm: :grr:

[Up2Late]

14. "The program is limited..." Yeah, RIGHT! Limited!

Just like the last lie.

Why don't we ever hear about them Checking the Bank records in the Cayman Islands or something?

[lavenderdiva]

15. won't hear of it in the Caymans, b/c a lot of the Swift people and friends

probably have bank accounts down there! Just guessing...

ps. I like your handle, Up2Late! Its really late/ early depending on your view point.... :hi:

[kick_them_hard]

18. Take your money out of

Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Citibank and Credit Suisse. Those are the banks they are data mining. Let the banks know you are changing banks because of this article, just to piss them off. And in return, the banks will be pissed off at this administration. :dilemma:

[Debau2005]

21. Is there a list

of banks that have complied? I am a B of A customer, but would love to take this opportunity to move my money, or what is left of it.

[kick_them_hard]

38. I dont know if there is a list but

SWIFT is OWNED and controlled by the world's largest financial institutions, including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. in the United States.

[Paulie]

19. The CIA sure is busy inside the US

They used to go to jail for violating its charter which included a prohibition against domestic spying. Guess this is an "improvement".

[Vinca]

20. Finally . . . something that might alert the Paris Hilton tax cut

recipients that all is not right in Shrubdom, despite the neverending breaks for the wealthy.

[MadHound]

22. Sorry, but Bushco is doing this to fight terrorism

Terrorists, much like drug dealers, are pretty much a cash only basis. No, I think that this has more to do with Bushco spying on its competition and those who disagree with them. They can use this information to blackmail, armtwist and silence those who don't agree with them. Sad, really really sad.

[Neecy]

23. huh?

The program is grounded in part on the president's emergency economic powers, Mr. Levey said...

When did the little general get 'emergency economic powers'? What else is he doing with these supposed 'emergency' powers?

When you start hearing phrases like 'emergency powers' be afraid, be very afraid...

[Moderator]

24. kick

[deadparrot]

25. Media refuses to hold surveillance story

NEW YORK - The Bush administration and The New York Times are again at odds over national security, this time with new reports of a broad government effort to track global financial transfers.

The newspaper, which in December broke news of an effort by the National Security Agency to monitor Americans' telephone calls and e-mails, declined a White House request not to publish a story about the government's inspection of monies flowing in and out of the country.

The Los Angeles Times also reported on the issue Thursday night on its Web site, against the Bush administration's wishes. The Wall Street Journal said it received no request to hold its report of the surveillance.

Administration officials were concerned that news reports of the program would diminish its effectiveness and could harm overall national security.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/terrorist_financing_newspapers

[RagingInMiami]

26. You know the world is upside down

When the fact that the media is doing their job becomes a newsworthy item in itself

[Wetzelbill]

27. isn't that the unfortunate truth

:)

[NorthernSun]

28. If they tracked Carlyle Group funds

I would feel much safer.

[Canuckistanian]

33. Maybe that's what this is about

The Carlyle Group must be under indictment investigation suspicion some scrutiny.

Good catch!

[TomInTib]

29. To play Devil's Advocate ( sort of )

While I have no problem with the gov's tracking financial transactions, their attempts at muzzling the media are outrageous.

[NorthernSun]

31. You can bet that certain groups are exempted

from scrutiny and that they are the most dangerous. Jonathan Bush's Riggs bank funded Pinochet and the 911 hijackers but somehow was missed.

[Canuckistanian]

30. Uh-oh, something's brewing

If anyone from the NYT is being summoned to the WH, there's gonna be another scandal.

There's no way in hell that the paper is going to publish sensitive information. No, this is all about embarassing information.

[EFerrari]

32. Or, the Wall Street Times is following directions not to allow

BushCo to track some people's money.

[Canuckistanian]

34. Good point

No need to protest if they're already complying. Guess who's getting front row seats at the Press Club dinner next year?

[dipsydoodle]

35. Now on BBC news over here in the UK too

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5110282.stm

[omshanti]

36. Kick, this is important.

Now, if you have ever sent money to a relative overseas (as I have) - you'll be under scrutiny.

[quiet.american]

37. The Bush-Riggs Bank Connection

If the Bush scum truly want to find out about funny money/terrorism, they need go no further than their own backyard:

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=78928#3

Riggs Bank is headed by longtime Bush family friend Joe Allbritton, employs President Bush's uncle Jonathan as a top executive, and other executives have been financial donors to the Bush campaign. The bank is at the center of a controversy, according to the Wall Street Journal, for failing to monitor "tens of millions of dollars in cash withdrawals from accounts related to the Saudi Arabian and Equatorial Guinean embassy," including "suspicious incidents involving dozens of sequentially numbered cashier's checks and international drafts written by Saudi officials, including Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan." Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) "said members of the bank's board of directors should be held to account for failing to exercise their watchdog role over Riggs's operations" and said refusal to follow money laundering laws "allows terrorists to funnel their blood money through the system."

According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon's "Age of Sacred Terror," upon taking office the Bush administration tried to halt efforts to tighten international banking laws – some of which may have affected Riggs. As he notes, the new Bush Treasury Department "disapproved of the Clinton administration's approach to money laundering issues, which had been an important part of the drive to cut off the money flow to bin Laden." Specifically, the Bush administration opposed Clinton administration-backed efforts by the G-7 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that targeted countries with "loose banking regulations" being abused by terrorist financiers. Meanwhile, the Bush administration provided "no funding for the new National Terrorist Asset Tracking Center."