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| Home Front: WoT |
| Secret bank probe tracks terrorists |
| 2006-06-23 |
| THE US government has secretly monitored banking transactions around the globe since the September 11, 2001 attacks, top officials said overnight, defending the program as a "lawful" part of the war on terror. It is the latest in a series of covert programs that is likely to spark fresh concerns about potential privacy infringements and Americans' civil liberties. US Vice President Dick Cheney defended the secret finance-tracking program as vital to national security and criticised several US newspapers for leaking the report, saying it played into the enemy's hands. "These are good, solid sound programs. They are conducted in accordance with the laws of the land," Mr Cheney said during a visit to Chicago. "They are carried out in a manner that is fully consistent with the constitutional authority of the president," Mr Cheney said, adding he found it "offensive" that newspapers would publicise the secret program. "What I find most disturbing about these stories is the fact that some in the media take it upon themselves to disclose vital national security programs, thereby making it more difficult for us to prevent future attacks against the American people," Mr Cheney said. The New York Times stood by its coverage saying editors had judged after careful deliberations that releasing the information served the public's interest. The collection of domestic telephone records and the eavesdropping on international calls by Americans without a warrant had already put the administration of President George W. Bush on the defensive. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the Bush administration was using only specific banking statements linked to terror suspects and taking care to preserve Americans' privacy. "Skillfully followed, they (the records) lead us to terrorists themselves, thereby protecting our citizens." Snow said the monitoring specifically targets suspected foreign terrorists and "is not 'data mining,' or trolling through the private financial records of Americans." "This is part of an overall governmental effort to map terrorist networks and apprehend terrorists around the world," he said. The spying program, conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the Treasury Department, was launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. "By following the money, the US has been able to locate operatives and their financiers, chart terrorist networks, help bring them to justice and save lives," Snow said. The program relies on records of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which routes millions of financial transfer instructions every day. It is based in part on the president's emergency economic powers, Treasury Department Under Secretary Stuart Levey told the Times. The searches rely on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from SWIFT. That access to large amounts of confidential data has raised concerns about legal and privacy issues inside the administration, the Times said, citing several officials. Treasury officials said multiple safeguards are in place to protect unwarranted searches of Americans' private banking records. SWIFT was approached shortly after September 11 because of its vast international database. The Times said that SWIFT, which is owned by more than 2,200 banks and financial organizations, routes about six trillion dollars daily, most of them in cross-border transactions. The Belgium-based cooperative serves 7,800 financial institutions in more than 200 countries. Its database, which a former US official described as "the mother lode," has provided clues to money trails and ties between possible terrorists and groups financing them, and directly led to the capture of Al-Qaeda operative Riduan Isamuddin, believed to have masterminded 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, the Times said. It has also helped identify a US man convicted of helping an Al-Qaeda member launder 200,000 dollars through a Pakistani bank, prosecutors told the Times. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |