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Bank Data Used to Block Terrorists

Discussion in '2006 Archive' started by carpro, Jun 23, 2006.

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  1. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html?ei=5065&en=8b8acbe63f34dad9&ex=1151640000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
    June 23, 2006

    Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror
    By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN

    EXCERPT

    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 having 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 and 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 under secretary at the Treasury Department, said in an interview on 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.
     
    #1 carpro, Jun 23, 2006
  2. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Someone please explain the difference in political goals and police methods between Bush, Hitler, and Stalin?
     
    #2 billwald, Jun 23, 2006
  3. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    The strange thing is that a NYTimes editorial urged the Administration 5 years ago to take the same steps that they now consider to be so invasive.

    http://powerlineblog.com/archives/014523.php

    Reader Douglas Rose has drawn our attention to this September 24, 2001 New York Times editorial ("Finances of Terror") (access limited to TimesSelect):

    EXCERPT

    Organizing the hijacking of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took significant sums of money. The cost of these plots suggests that putting Osama bin Laden and other international terrorists out of business will require more than diplomatic coalitions and military action. Washington and its allies must also disable the financial networks used by terrorists.

    The Bush administration is preparing new laws to help track terrorists through their money-laundering activity and is readying an executive order freezing the assets of known terrorists. Much more is needed, including stricter regulations, the recruitment of specialized investigators and greater cooperation with foreign banking authorities. There must also must be closer coordination among America's law enforcement, national security and financial regulatory agencies.
     
    #3 carpro, Jun 29, 2006
  4. Bro. Curtis

    Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>
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    Yup. Bush leaves millions less dead.
     
    #4 Bro. Curtis, Jun 29, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 29, 2006
  5. El_Guero

    El_Guero New Member

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    Ditto . . .
     
    #5 El_Guero, Jun 29, 2006
  6. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    Ditto on the Ditto:thumbs:
     
    #6 Revmitchell, Jun 29, 2006
  7. Terry_Herrington

    Terry_Herrington New Member

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    What I have difficult understanding is how so much of this Administration's top secret programs are finding their way into the news media? Looks like Bush needs to work on shoring up some of these leaks.

    Of course, it could be that the plan is to leak this information, knowing that it will be published. Then, use this attack on the liberals as a tool in the upcoming elections.
     
    #7 Terry_Herrington, Jun 29, 2006
  8. Daisy

    Daisy New Member

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    That's odd because it was my impression that this was totally without warrants.
     
    #8 Daisy, Jun 30, 2006
  9. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    You been hanging out with Poncho?:smilewinkgrin:
     
    #9 carpro, Jun 30, 2006
  10. Terry_Herrington

    Terry_Herrington New Member

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    No, but despite you sarcasm I want to know how the Bush administration is suffering from so many leaks? Do they not have a handle on security?
     
    #10 Terry_Herrington, Jun 30, 2006
  11. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    You mean leakers like Senators Jay Rockefeller and Dick Durbin, and "Leaky" Lahey?

    It's hard to do anything with Senators. They protect each other.:smilewinkgrin:
     
    #11 carpro, Jun 30, 2006
  12. Terry_Herrington

    Terry_Herrington New Member

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    I don't care if they are democrats, republicans, senators, or anyone else. If they are leaking classified information, they should be held accountable.
     
    #12 Terry_Herrington, Jun 30, 2006
  13. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    How many terrorists were blocked? Some names, please.
     
    #13 billwald, Jun 30, 2006
  14. Daisy

    Daisy New Member

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    That's classified! Hmmmm, is someone here cruisin' for a disappearing?
     
    #14 Daisy, Jun 30, 2006
  15. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    Nope he doesnt. Unlike Clinton who cleaned house when he went in and brought in new people to key positions that supported him and his agenda, the President left so many of Clintons appointees from the former administration. The seething hatred of him exists in those positions much like it does on this board.

    He hates not to trust in or judge those folks before it is necessary but what he should have done is clean house. The leakers need to be publicly exposed on the National Terrorist Tip Sheets such as Washington Times etc.
     
    #15 Revmitchell, Jun 30, 2006
  16. El_Guero

    El_Guero New Member

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    Like the ambassador and his CIA spy wife that leaked classified reports that they knew about so that they could claim that the Bush administration had read them?

    Used to be people like that went to leavenworth. They should still go to leavenworth for leaking classified information (and misrepresenting what the administration knew or did not know).IMHO
     
    #16 El_Guero, Jun 30, 2006
  17. El_Guero

    El_Guero New Member

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    PS

    I have tried to figure out how the ambassador got access to her classified reports . . .
     
    #17 El_Guero, Jun 30, 2006
  18. Daisy

    Daisy New Member

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    Boy did you get that one backwards. Joe Wilson did the report at the behest of the VP's office, then wrote an op-ed piece about what he knew - not illegal.

    Libby Lewis, Cheney's chief of staff, leaked the classified fact that Plame worked undercover for the CIA - very illegal.

    The ironic thing is that Wilson's report did not debunk what Bush claimed in his SOTU speech: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

    Wilson reported that Iraq had been unsuccessful and the Nigerian papers which indicated otherwise were an obvious forgery. (Of course, the Bushies continued to claim, falsely, that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons programme, but that's a different topic).

    And when the leakers and misrepresenters are the administration?
     
    #18 Daisy, Jul 1, 2006
  19. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Are you sure about that?:smilewinkgrin:
     
    #19 carpro, Jul 1, 2006
  20. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    sucker born every minute

    My anti-terrorist organization has killed several terrorists but I can't give details for security reasons.
     
    #20 billwald, Jul 1, 2006
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