[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

This is not the same as the program recently revealed by the New York Times.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[Killborn]

SWIFT - 2000s, Pres Bush = bad for terrorists

SAR - 1990s, Toon = bad for freedom

Why am I not surprised? And where the fish is the New York Treason with their big yaps?

[Ingtar]

http://www.irs.gov/irm/part4/ch57s01.html

Instituted in 1970. Amended in 1995 to lower the limits to where they are today. Banks seem to fall into two classes with this: those covering their butts in case of litigation and those using it to delay transactions to reap the use of the money for a longer period. I believe that the hold on funds in the part of this I find objectionable.

[Lizavetta]

If you do, you may end up caught in the crosshairs of a government program designed to target terrorists and money launderers.

Money launderers? The government is going to crack down on money launderers?

Perhaps they can turn the microscope on themselves. You know, how they designate a certain percentage of lottery money "to the schools".......and then deduct that same amount out of the schools' budgets to use for, well, who the hell knows? If that ain't money laundering what is?

Don'tcha love how our ever loving government is there for us to "crack down" on those who privately do THE SAME DAMN THING that they're doing.....like gambling (no gambling, unless it's a state lottery), like stealing (no stealing, unless the legislature has okayed it in the form of tax hikes), like money laundering (as explained above), taking other people's property (eminent domain), etc.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Seems like kind of a non-issue to me - within a few years we will likely be living in a society where ANY cash transaction will by suspect if not illegal.

[Mustng959]

If they want to check my accounts, they're welcome to, probably haven't had a good laugh in awhile.

[mysterio]

It's getting to the point where it's almost a good idea to pull the cash out and keep it under your floor. I'm not comfortable with all of these spying programs.

[observer5]

"This is not the same as the program recently revealed by the New York Times."

Yeah, this program includes every financial transaction, not just the SWIFT wire types.

Totally insane... just like in NAZI GERMANY.... Heil Bush!!

Disgusting!

[balch3]

More treason by the MSM, outing secret government security programs.

[ThomasThomas]

The trigger is $10,000 not $5,000 last I heard. But I seldom spend that type of money. It is not trigger by a single transaction but can be part of a group. This not a secret program. It is well know among those how have these amounts of money. Bank account imforamtion other than these reports must be subpoenaed before a bank a reveal them to a government agency. Rush Limbaugh talked about this on air a few times. Customers will not be told when it is filled out, you can assume it will be. This started as part of the war on drugs and money laundering. It is also why 100 dollar bill is the largest currency in circulation. You can only get about a million dollars in most briefcases now. This hasn't proved inconvenient for me... yet. There are still larger bill out but if they come to a bank they are taken by the Feds and shredded.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Business as usual in banks and H-A-W-A-L-A elsewhere.

The fact that this story even shows up tells two things:

1. people are very out of touch with laws passed by their own congress critters, and with banking regulations in general

2. laws already in effect that could create worry among Americans are being portrayed by leftist media as Bush's directives

[Still Thinking]

John Hall, spokesman for the American Bankers' Association, was quoted in the National Law Journal in May 2005 as saying, "Our bank counsel are saying if it smells just the least bit, file. File early and file often."

One way to protect the privacy of bank customers without running afoul of the law is to automate the process (not the report, that should be paper if at all possible, and barely legible, but automate the report generation) and file on EVERY customer transaction. Drown the bastards in a tidal wave of paper.