Posted on 07/03/2006 4:02:46 AM PDT by Jameison
Eric Lichtblaus story in the New York Times, June 22:
Bank Data Secretly Reviewed by U.S. to Fight Terror
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
Eric Lichtblau today, on CNNs Reliable Sources:
"USA Today, the biggest circulation in the country, the lead story on their front page four days before our story ran was the terrorists know their money is being traced, and they are moving it intooutside of the banking system into unconventional means. It is by no means a secret."
---snip----
Here, courtesy of Chris Fotos, is a bullet-point list of quotes from the story saying that the program was secret:
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
Officials described the Swift program as the biggest and most far-reaching of several secret efforts to trace terrorist financing
.
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.
---snip---
While the banking program is a closely held secret, administration officials have held classified briefings for some members of Congress and the Sept. 11 commission, the officials said
.
Swifts 25-member board of directors, made up of representatives from financial institutions around the world, was previously told of the program. The Group of 10s central banks, in major industrialized
countries, which oversee Swift, were also informed. It is not clear if other network participants know that American intelligence officials can examine their message traffic.
----snip---
Hint for Mr. Lichtblau: when they get you under oath, youll be much better off if the lies are less obvious than this.
(Excerpt) Read more at patterico.com ...
It's so commonly known, in fact, that there have been numerous stories by myself and other reporters in the last four and a half years about how the -- how the terrorists are aware that their money is being traced and are moving it out of financial institutions.
So the harm to me is -- is an abstract one, at best."
Of course Hugh Hewitt wasn't going to let the weasely Lichtblau get away with that nonsense, as in:
"KURTZ: There is also a web site by this organization, which is called SWIFT. So that it was not a complete secret.
But Hugh Hewitt, I have a funny feeling you'd like to respond to that.
HEWITT: I do, and there are two responses. One, it's the difference between knowing that people are out to catch speeders in most cities and knowing where the speed traps and the radar and the cameras are.
And No. 2, in the story itself, in Eric's own story, it talks about how this program has operated and that no one knew about it. The CIA didn't know about it.
And as a result -- and by the way, don't believe me. Believe Doyle McManus, the Washington bureau chief of the "Los Angeles Times", who admitted on my program that it is conceivable that this program helped terrorists elude capture. Once you've got that admission, it is impossible for the "New York Times" or the "Los Angeles Times" to balance the harm it did.
And unless Eric wants to tell us that he knows the mind of every single terrorist in the world, what they know and what they don't know, how they operate, how they train, how they go about killing people, he's making an absurd statement that I think convicts him as not knowing much about intelligence; perhaps a lot about journalism but almost nothing about how intelligence in law enforcement works."
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0607/02/rs.01.html
Note to all future Republican Govements. PURGE all Democrats out of the Civil Service as soon as you take office. Democrats have demonstrated during the Bush years they clearly care more about their political dogma then their duty.
By all means, let's err on the side of what-the-hell. I mean, it's not like we're talking about a WAR or anything...these are only terrorists, which to some are freedom fighters, so really, we shouldn't take sides here, right?
We really should be more understanding--how would these NYTimers be able to face their white wine-sipping friends at their Saturday night parties on the Hamptons if they actually kept secrets from freedom fighters? THAT is what these people REALLY care about.
(How do I know this? Ask yourself this: Would one of these reporters from the New York Times reveal that a secret police sting operation was underway watching houses in the Hamptons or the most fashionable areas of NYC, disguised as mailmen in hopes of catching thieves preying on the New York rich? You bet your sweet butt they wouldn't.
But reveal secret actions to stop terrorism? They can't STOP revealing them.
So in other words, the NYTimes "sexed up" its own reporting. Lets see, where have we heard that before? I recalled when the media acused the government of sexing up and cherry picking information. Yesterday Keller said the terrorists all knew about this because they were smart enough to figure it out. They also said everyone knew about it except congress....I presume because Keller was saying that they are too stupid to have figured it out. Caught red handed in lies, they only lie some more to cover their sorry clymers.
Put the NYSlimes on trial for treason... and if they refuse to name the Judas's who leaked... let the crows pick at their eyes as they swing from the gallows!
PRICELESS
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