Posted on 06/22/2006 7:04:19 PM PDT by baseball_fan
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is actually pretty common knowledge among us who work in financial institutions... especially those of us involved in information systems. It is a requirement.
interesting...the story makes it sound "uncommon:"
"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."
These P.O.S.s refuse to allow us to have ANY secrets in the war of terror. These guys should be sent to Gitmo and given a cell. If it is more important for them to 'inform the public' and by doing so compromise our ability to 'protect the public' then I consider them enemies of the state.
Well, apparently it wasn't common knowledge among certain terrorists or the government wouldn't have been able to glean any information about their financial transactions. But thanks to the NYtimes and the LAtimes, one more door is slammed shut in the WOT. When are they going to be held accountable for aiding and abetting terrorists?
WOW! One can only assume now that the NYTimes are indeed on the payroll of the terrorists. We all know their reputation is in the crapper and they are losing circulation. I guess in order to maintain some level of credit, Pinch, Keller, Risen, et al, are now accepting bonuses from the terrorists. NYTimes helps them yet again. I'm surprised that their advertisers haven't cut and run; if I were a business, and the NYTimes was exposed as so openly supporting the terrorists, I wouldn't want to be associated with their treason. It is time to lock them up and throw away the key.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1654080/posts?page=1#1
An earlier Achmed and Khalid conversation.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1654080/posts?page=1#16
Whoops, wrong link before. Post #16 on that thread.
Oh that's rich! Excellent portrayal.
Thanks for the link, Coconutt! LOL, that was great!
This stuff has nothing to do with drugs - most money laundering transactions are perfectly legitimate transactions that have been manipulated in some way to hide either the source or the destination of the funds, or sometimes to obtain an extra, untraceable "cushion" of funds from financial activities. They're often very complicated transactions and can involve currency exchange, falsified documentation, non-existent businesses,security obtained from criminal parties, etc. The ME is stuffed with people who seem to do nothing but arrange fraudulent financial transactions with their fellow citizens in the US for the purpose of channeling money to terrorists in other parts of the globe.
Terrorist organizations no doubt do make money from drug sales, and no doubt launder it just as the Mafia does, but because there is more risk in drug sales, most of their money laundering uses money from other sources. It is complicated and a considerable amount of research has to go into identifying and tracking it. The only way that can be done is through banks and lenders.
I have a securities license. One of the requirements is continuing education. One of the main topics is identifying unussual activity that needs to be reported. This is very, very old news and certainly not secret, except for the investigation s themselves.
"Achmed?"
"Yes Khalid?"
"Do you get the feeling that someone is watching us?"
"Khalid? Funny you should ask that. I'm getting that feeling too."
"Could it be the Americans Achmed?"
"I don't see how they can be watching us now Khalid. The windows are closed are we are in a safe house they don't know about."
"Achmed? Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"That whistli...."
[A LOUD BOOM]
"ACHMED!!!"
"Quiet Khalid!"
"What do you see Achmed?"
"The Americans just bombed the safe house. We must get moving before the Americans show up and start looking around. Someone might come to check on the old couple that used to live here."
"Yes, we must move - but I did not sleep well Achmed."
"I know Khalid. You talk too much. Let's go."
"Achmed?"
"What is it now Khalid?"
"I still feel as if someone is watching us."
GWB's poll numbers were rising too high for some people...
To me, this a treasonous act. Publishing this story especially after the administration set out a careful argument proving the worth of withholding it. TREASON.
I understand via Drudge that the LA Slimes also published it and perhaps the Wall Street Journal as well. Yet if the NY and LA Slimes were running with it anyway, why should the WSJ retsrain themselves.
On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if there is a reason somewhere that the admin might want this story out right about now.
Pretty good! Sometimes through a little bit of humor you can say something more seriously than if you say it straight up, well done.
There are several Achmed/Khalid conversations actually... And I think I had one a week ago too. The rest were tonight/this morning.
Khalid is a really young protege of Achmed. I'm thinking of getting the two of them stuck at a desert oasis sometime in the future. Perhaps when they flee Baghdad and wander up Northward looking for their compatriots to regroup.
We'll see if any future occasions for their conversations occur.
bttt
Good! excellent! well done!
I just wrote my Texas Senators and my Congressman and asked them to call for an investigation into who leaked this story and seriously consider charging the NY Times editors with treason.
I wrote to Sen. Feinstein. I think she's enough of a politician to listen. I didn't waste my time with Sen. Boxer.
Well, it's about as big of a secret as the wire tapping everyone is in an uproar about. This has never been a huge secret. HOW they do it efficiently is somewhat foggy, but it's been going on for many years. Ever heard of Echelon?
Here is a good place to start. It's real, no tin foil hat stuff here.... The author is a bit on the paranoid/liberal side, but the article is quite detailed.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/echelon.html
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