I am having a hard time digesting the Bush Administrations claims of the article's about the "financial data tracking" is a setback to our "National Security" and the talk of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times were asked not to run the story due to the risk to National Security, I watched Wayne Simmons (a Fox news contributor) calling them traitors, and the publishers should be jailed, he called them the "Jihad Times" funny they kept forgetting to mention that Cavuto's favorite newspaper ran the same story on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, is that a "jihad Times" outlet to? Or is it okay for Republican papers to do "responsible" journalism and the only ones that have their patriotism questioned is the perceived left leaning papers?
The news links:
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
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White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush ``is concerned that once again the New York Times has chosen to expose a classified program that is working to protect our citizens.''
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration has made tracking and cutting off financing, a crucial component of the battle against terrorism.
``We are now able to define our targets, to fight against terror and terrorists, to cut off their financial supplies, to share information,'' Bush said at a news conference.
The Treasury routinely monitors financial transactions in U.S. banks under the Bank Secrecy Act. Under that law, banks are required to report any cash transaction above $10,000 and to file a suspicious activity report on any transaction that the bank believes may be tied to criminal activity.
U.S. banks have filed more than 2 million suspicious activity reports since 1996, according to John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association. Banks are also required to retain information on all transfers of more than $3,000.
The Swift program differs from that because Treasury demanded the information through an administrative subpoena that was not approved by lawmakers or the courts. The subpoena was issued under the president's emergency economic powers.
``The legal basis for this subpoena is routine and absolutely clear,'' Levey said. ``We issue such subpoenas regularly, and our authority to do so has never been called into doubt.''
Where is the White House concern over the Wall Street Journal running the same story on the same day?
The Treasury's program is just one component of an expanding effort by American officials to more closely monitor suspect financial dealings. http://online.wsj.com/...
I am to cheap to pay for the WSJ but here was the tease on the free page.
Then we still have the NSA eavesdropping scandal that still has not been thoroughly examined by Congress or the Courts. This administration keeps saying "trust us" we are only doing this to protect you. They have grabbed at some strange legal opinions to justify their refusal to get Congressional approval or to follow the laws as written by Congress or the Constitution.
The "trust us" argument doesn't wash with me, I am a disabled American veteran. I served 14 years in an Army uniform in two wars, so please do not attempt to tell me I am not patriotic, nor do I understand "classified" information, Secret, Top Secret, TS/Codenames etc.
I can remember a few other "classified" government programs that were Top Secret and were done for the "good of the country", Operation Paperclip it was the program the OSS/CIA ran after WW2 to recruit and bring to America, Nazi scientists, Doctors, physicists, jet engine engineers, rocker engineers, etc, what is not widely mentioned besides the famous contributions of Werner Von Braun of NASA, who took us to the moon, ask them how many laborers at Penumunde died while working in his facilities, he was the Commander of the facility, was he not responsible for what happened there?
The people you haven't heard about yet, but soon will is the Nazi doctors and scientists that the CIA and DOD used at Fort Detrick maryland and Edgewood Arsenal Maryland from 1948 thru the mid 1970's that were using American servicemen in Biological weapons experiments at Fort Detrick, 2300 men, at Edgewood Arsenal they used 7120 men in chemical weapons and drug experiments Senator Dewine forced CIA Director Porter Goss in February 2005 to open the CIA/OSS files concerning the Nazi's who were employed by the US government after WW2. http://news.enquirer.com/...
IN ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT
DeWine joined historians and Central Intelligence Agency officials last week to announce the release of 27,000 additional pages of declassified CIA documents about U.S. involvement with Nazi war criminals in the post-World War II era.
A law sponsored by DeWine created a government group to work on declassifying CIA documents that would help the public understand the extent of the U.S. government's involvement with war criminals after the war.
To date, more than 8 million pages of records have been released.
"I hope the release of these new documents will help bring closure to families whose relatives suffered at the hands of the Nazis," DeWine said. "The documents will bring the truth to light and allow us to better understand one of the darkest periods in human existence - the Nazi era."
http://www1.va.gov/... this explains the different Chemical, Biological and Radiological experiments that the US government did from WW2 thru 1975, it of course left out the part about the Nazi's, why let "facts" get in the way. This report shows that 75% of the men as of FY2000 were either dead or disabled but as of today DOD refused to allow the release of the names and addresses gathered by the Institute of Medicine so the disabled veterans or the widows of these men can obtain their veteran benefits due to the harm these tests caused.
http://www.iom.edu/...
Rick Erdtman if the IOM at 202-334-1925 has stated that as soon as DOD authorizes him to release the data to the Veterans Affairs, he will DOD has refused to allow this data to be released, why? Another "national Security" interest, you bet it is, the information is related to the first time Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense in 1975 and as Chief of Staff in the Ford White house where he was succeded by a man named Dick Cheney. They were two of the men who authorized these experiments over the life of the program that was "classified" at the highest levels of the National Security Council.
So, excuse me if I have heartburn when these men in "power" tell me they are acting in the best "interests" of national security. Most of the stuff these men are involved in make me feel very "insecure" their personal history, has shown them to be of low character, and any means justifies the end results, no matter whose rights and health are put at risk, and they do not feel they should be held accountable for their actions.
They have never been held accountable for the role they played in violations of the Nuremebrg Codes of 1947 on this nations military servicemen in 1974 and 1975. http://www.nap.edu/...
They have shown by the statements made by DOD personnel to GAO investigators in 2004 that they can not find the 7120 men of Edgewood Arsenal until 2009, the same year they leave office, do any of us believe they will identify these men or their widows before Jan 20th 2009, when the new President and his Cabinet take over? http://www.gao.gov/... page 20 specifically mentions the 7120 men of Edgewood. This in spite of the March 2003 IOM study that DOD paid for and surely knew about before the release date to the public on March 2003.
This is why I firmly believe in oversight, and disclosure, this has been an open secret since 1975, when Vice President Nelson Rockefeller held his investigation under the orders of President Ford, which led to the Church Commission in 1976. http://pw1.netcom.com/...
When these people say "trust us" run like hell and yell for the cops, because something wrong is going on, history from three decades ago and their actions of the past six years have shown me this.