Posted on 06/22/2006 5:42:37 PM PDT by kellynla
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government gained sweeping access to international banking records as part of a secret program to choke off financial support for terrorism, officials said Thursday.
Treasury Department officials said they used broad subpoenas to collect the financial records from an international system known as Swift. Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, called the subpoenas "a legal and proper use of our authorities."
"Since immediately following 9-11, the American government has taken every legal measure to prevent another attack on our country," Dana Perino, deputy White House press secretary, said Thursday evening. "One of the most important tools in the fight against terror is our ability to choke off funds for the terrorists."
The White House and Treasury Department issued statements about the secret subpoenas after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal posted stories about the program on their Web sites.
Under the program, which started shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. counterterrorism analysts combed Swift's massive data base looking for financial transactions by suspected terrorists, according to the newspapers' accounts. They said the program was run by the CIA and overseen by the Treasury Department.
Swift is a Belgium-based cooperative that handles financial message traffic from 7,800 financial institutions in more than 200 countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.washingtontimes.com ...
What is the point of having secret Romanian prisons if we aren't going to use them?
We are in a war. The Times has just blown one of the most important operations we have going. Again.
The key to shutting down Al Qaeda, the key to predicting the next attack is the ability to track the flow of money. The Times just burned us again. The people involved in this all have names. The reporter, and his sources in various government agencies, should all be under arrest within the day.
This ain't no disco. This ain't no foolin' around.
The Washington Times is generally a good paper. I agree with your comments here. I fail to understand why we must continually telegraph our moves to the terrorists.
The information was already blown by the New York Times.
Thanks. I wasn't aware of that. It figures.
I didn't read down to the point that it mentioned that the NYT and the WP had done the deed. I saw the source and thought the WT was reveling something new. Someone mentioned that it wasn't the WT and I thanked them.
Can't wait to see which of our elected officals start diving for cover and trying to hide their off shore accouts form the money they have been receiving under the table.
Maybe the sales of freezers will go up?
They make me want to vomit.
Me too...
Drudge report is headlining this..says NYT and LAT reporting...nannaj11
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.