Bush slams leak of terror finance story ["The disclosure of this program is disgraceful,"....]

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

Bush slams leak of terror finance story

10 minutes ago

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.

Using broad government subpoenas, the program allows U.S. counterterrorism analysts to obtain financial information from a vast database maintained by a company based in Belgium. It routes about 11 million financial transactions daily among 7,800 banks and other financial institutions in 200 countries.

"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.

[saveliberty]

Woo hoo! thanks again, Mom! :-)

[eleni121]

You have really done it this time! Perfecto!

But who is the guy sitting next to the mafia princess? Is that Reid...Or is it the wimp from PA...Specter?

[TexKat]

We are further defenseless as our own government will not act to bring the traitors to justice

One of my keepsakes from Bill Frist to Chris Matthews regarding :

I think over time—I‘m not sure if it will be next week or next month or six months from now or over the elections, but over time, the American people will understand and will follow. We‘ve got to do a better job messaging it, talking it, explaining it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13363647/

[MRadtke]

like the song "Dirty Laundry", you know.

They love it when you lose. (America)

[Enchante]

"lets be fair now. the story went up on the LAT, WSJ and NYT websites Thurday night. Gonna burn them, should probably burn them all"

Yes, they should all fry, but we can be sure that there's a reason all 3 had the story up the same date and it wasn't just that they were racing to beat each other to the 'scoop' -- this was well-coordinated so that it would be more difficult to justify going after any one of them without prosecuting all 3, and if the admin. does that we can be certain it's a set-up for endless stories of "WH War on the News Media" etc. I'm not saying we don't need to go after these traitors agressively (I want to see serious jail terms), just noting that it's going to be a media bloodbath and brouhaha if the feds do prosecute.

[kerryusama04]

Dear Attorney General Gonzalez,

I am a conservative Republican veteran living in a conservative Republican state with conservative Republican family serving the in military. We are tired of the leaks of sensitive information to the news media. Keep in mind that the news media are well known to be bottom feeding, George W Bush hating jackals, so it is no shock to any objective American that they will rationalize the spreading of anything that can be construed as damaging to President Bush, especially if they feel that they can profit from it at the same time. This is a bizarre situation in that George W. Bush will never be elected President again, but alas, it is reality. Whatever the news media can do to make President Bush look bad, they will do, regardless of national security. I implore you to make it White House policy that contact with the New York Times outside of the press briefing to be a fireable offence and possibly revoke the press pass of the NYT. Beyond this, if you guys don't start sending leakers to jail then these leaks cannot be construed as anything other than press releases. Please act now to stop this nonsense before any of our military or covert operatives are compromised, or worse yet, we get hit again.

[TexKat]

I agree Enchante.

[cinives]

Nothing would make me happier than to see an airplane flown into the NYT building ... better there than the WTC

[southernindymom]

I hope that the AG does begin the process and that W does push the issue. The liberal media outlets need to be brought down.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Congress was briefed

...and then it was leaked. Of course.

Can't say it any more plainly: Certain members of Congress are acting knowingly in league with sworn enemies of the United States.

If that's not treason, what is?

[FreedomFighter78]

I have little use for the Times, but I fail to see what the big deal is here. Since shortly after 9/11, President Bush (and various other members of his administration) have been loudly proclaiming that the government is tracking the finances of suspected terrorists (as we should be doing, of course). They've proclaimed that we're using every available option to do so (again, as we should be doing). For example, a White House press release from 9/10/04 stated that:

"The targeting of terrorist financing continues to play an important role in the war on terror. Freezing assets, terminating cash flows, and following money trails to previously unknown terrorist cells are some of the many weapons used against terrorist networks. The United States has designated 387 individuals and entities as terrorists or terrorist financiers. The global community has frozen more than $142 million in terrorist-related assets. These steps make it harder for terrorists to build networks, recruit and train new members, and carry out attacks."

So the fact that we're monitoring international financial networks is nothing new (even before 9/11, such monitoring occurred in an effort to curb money laundering/drug trafficking/etc.). All this report by the Times did was affirm 2 things:

1)That, among the actions taken, we're monitoring the SWIFT database/network. This is (or should be) nothing new. The SWIFT database itself has a website (it's not any sort of secret database), and on that website it states that:

"SWIFT has a history of cooperating in good faith with authorities such as central banks, treasury departments, law enforcement agencies and appropriate international organisations, such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF*), in their efforts to combat abuse of the financial system for illegal activities."

and

2)That this program is based on broad administrative subpoenas, rather than the case-by-case judicial subpoenas that most previous financial tracking has used. Though the merits of such administrative subpoenas can be debated, such a revelation can hardly be considered treasonous.

The Times has done some disgraceful things in the course of the WoT, of course. But I don't think this is necessarily one of them - it seems more likely that the administration's harsh criticism of the Times in this case is an effort to score some political points by playing on the (legitimate) hostility/mistrust many feel towards the Times.

[handy]

The President and Tony Snow's comments are meaningless unless someone is held to account.

There needs to be a consequence for leaking this stuff. A consequence like jail time. Whether it is a reporter in jail for contempt or a CIA leaker, someone needs to see a cell over this. Otherwise it won't stop and the words of the White House are meaningless.

[saveliberty]

http://hughhewitt.com/archives/2006/06/25-week/index.php#a002573

[FreedomFighter78]

to piggyback off my own comment, we have the government saying, "We're using every available means to track terrorist financing," and we have the SWIFT people saying, "We work with governments to track the use of financial systems for illegal activities," but people on here are arguing that the Times is somehow treasonous for reporting that "the government is using the SWIFT database (an available resource) to track terrorist financing (an illegal activity)."

[Ben Chad]

Either do something or STFU.

[eleni121]

The Democrats and the New York Slimes have become the fifth column ie. the enemy during time of war. Publishing a news report about SWIFT has provided our enemies with information they may not have been aware of previous to this.

[Brit1]

Whats a matter with them. Where is the personal responcibility

[FreedomFighter78]

What information, though? SWIFT isn't any sort of a secret database - they have a website at http://www.swift.com and they acknowledge on that website that they work with law enforcement/treasury/etc agencies of various nations to help curb international crime (including terrorism).

[bray]

The Treason Times must be soooo Proud! The Blood of our Servicemen and Women is on their pages.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[george76]