Bush "does great harm to the" US before the NYT story....

Context: The New York Times story about a financial tracking program to find terrorist money.

Bush's response: "If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money," the president said. "And that's exactly what we're doing. And the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror."

So -- prior to June 23, 2006 -- the terrorists didn't know that the US was trying to follow their money?  Well, maybe they did...

Bush on September 24, 2001:

We're putting banks and financial institutions around the world on notice, we will work with their governments and ask them to freeze or block terrorist ability to access funds in foreign accounts. If they fail to help us by sharing information or freezing accounts, the Department of the Treasury now has the authority to freeze their bank's assets and transactions in the United States.

November 7, 2001:

The president said U.S. allies had also taken steps to block assets affiliated with the two networks. He cited the United Arab Emirates, and Secretary of State Colin Powell mentioned Saudi Arabia, part of the administration's bid to underscore cooperation the United States has received from some Arab nations in the war against terrorism.

Paul O'Neill:

We've built an international coalition to deny terrorists access to the world financial system; 112 nations have blocking orders in force and nations around the world have blocked at least $43 million in assets...

From the Homeland Security Institute in April 2003, an article detailing MANY ways to fight terrorism on a finacial level ("bolding" is mine):

...the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is a member of the Egmont Group--an international organization of 69 Financial Intelligence Units formed six years before 11 September 2001 to share intelligence of suspicious financial activities. The units in each nation receive information from financial institutions in accordance with anti-money laundering laws, analyze disclosures, and disseminate the information domestically to authorities and internationally to other units to assist law enforcement.

Bush on April 19, 2004:

See, part of the way to make sure that we catch terrorists is we chase money trails.
[...]
We've frozen or seized about $200 million in terrorist assets around the world. When I say "we," this is now not only United States, but friends and allies. We're cutting off their money. We're following -- what was that movie? -- follow the money. That's what we're doing, to make sure that we do our job.

I'm sure this is nothing new to regular Daily Kos readers. But it highlights just how fake this outrage is at the New York Times.