"Hundreds, if not thousands, of people" have known about the program"
Oookay.
Let's look at the self-same Eric Lichtblau in his original article in The Slimes, shall we?
"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….
Swift’s 25-member board of directors, made up of representatives from financial institutions around the world, was previously told of the program. The Group of 10’s 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."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1659609/posts
Not secret huh? Riiiiight.