---------------------------------
Secrecy? No cable in the cave?
No mention of Obama voting for EXPANDING said policy (Hillary too),
and now ramping it up beyond the dreams of anyone named Bush? How
odd.
Not really
On Dec 6, 12:53 pm, dick thompson <rhomp2...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> This was one of the systems I processed the input to before I
> retired. We at Citibank used to send over a million transactions per
> day to this SWIFT system tracking all sorts of money transaction and I
> managed the processing of that system. When the NYT disclosed that the
> US was using this system to track money payments to Al Qaeda they really
> put a crimp in our ability to check the funding for terrorism almost as
> badly as when they revealed that we were listening in on cell phones
> that the terrorists were using. Now they have a new article about it.
> We don't need enemies. We have the MSM for that.
>
> Europe Wary of U.S. Bank Monitors
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/middleeast/06wikileaks-swift....>
>
> By ERIC LICHTBLAU
>
> When Europeans halted a program used to monitor international banking
> transactions, the United States had to scramble to regain support for it.
>
> Europe Wary of U.S. Bank Monitors
>
> ByERIC LICHTBLAU
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/eric_lic...>
>
> Published: December 5, 2010
>
> * RECOMMEND
> * TWITTER
> *
>
> E-MAIL
> * SEND TO PHONE
> * PRINT
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/middleeast/06wikileaks-swift....>
> *
>
> REPRINTS
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/middleeast/06wikileaks-swift....>
> * SHARE
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/middleeast/06wikileaks-swift....>
>
> WASHINGTON --- When theEuropean Parliament
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/e...>ordered
> a halt in February to an American government program to monitor
> international banking transactions for terrorist activity, the Obama
> administration was blindsided by the rebuke.
>
> State's Secrets
>
> /Day 8/
>
> Articles in this series will examine American diplomatic cables as a
> window on relations with the rest of the world in an age of war and
> terrorism.
>
> Other Articles in the Series �
> <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/statessecrets.html>
>
> Related Documents
>
> * Conflict Over Money-Tracking Program
> <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/28/world/20101128-cables-v...>
> * All Related Documents �
> <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/28/world/20101128-cables-v...>
>
> Talk to the Newsroom
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/29askthetimes.html?ref=middle...>
>
> Editors and reporters are answering questions.
>
> * CommentSend Questions <mailto:asktheti...@nytimes.com>
>
> Related
>
> *
>
> Cash Flow to Terrorists Evades U.S. Efforts
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/middleeast/06wikileaks-financ...>(December
> 6, 2010)
>
> *
>
> Link by Link: WikiLeaks and the Perils of Oversharing
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/business/media/06link.html?ref=midd...>(December
> 6, 2010)
>
> "Paranoia runs deep especially about US intelligence agencies," a secret
> cable from the American Embassy in Berlin said. "We were astonished to
> learn how quickly rumors about alleged U.S. economic espionage" had
> taken root among German politicians who opposed the program, it said.
>
> The memo was among dozens of State Department cables that revealed the
> deep distrust of some traditional European allies toward what they
> considered American intrusion into their citizens' affairs without
> stringent oversight.
>
> The program, created in secrecy by the Bush administration after the
> Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has allowed American counterterrorism officials
> to examine banking transactions routed through a vast database run by a
> Brussels consortium known as Swift. When theprogram was disclosed in
> 2006 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html>by The
> New York Times, just months after the newspaper reported the existence
> of theNational Security Agency
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/n...>'s
> warrantless wiretapping program, it set off protests in Europe and
> forced the United States to accept new restrictions.
>
> But by 2010, new leaders at the European Parliament had what one State
> Department memo called "a fixation" on privacy issues. On Feb. 10, the
> Europeans voted 378 to 196 to halt the Swift program.
>
> Obama administration officials valued it because it allowed them to
> trace the transactions of suspected terrorist financiers while including
> "robust" privacy protections, according to the cables.
>
> But many Europeans were skeptical. Some allies not only were concerned
> that program might be used to steal secrets from European companies, but
> also considered it of "dubious" value.
>
> In Austria, for example, "the Nazi legacy and familiarity with communist
> regimes" have fueled "a widespread presumption against government data
> collection and in favor of stringent privacy protections," officials at
> the embassy wrote.
>
> Many Germans, meanwhile, remember "how the Stasi," the former East
> German secret police, "abused information to destroy people's lives,"
> according to a dispatch from the American Embassy in Berlin.
>
> Opposition in Germany was particularly damaging because the country was
> among a handful of allies that, according to a 2006 cable, organized a
> "coalition of the constructive" to ensure that the Swift operation was
> not "ruined by privacy experts."
>
> After German representatives voted against the program, a German
> official reported to American diplomats that ChancellorAngela Merkel
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/angela_m...>---
> a strong supporter of the program --- was "angrier than he had ever seen
> her."
>
> After mobilizing top officials, including Secretary of StateHillary
> Rodham Clinton
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/hillary_...>,Treasury
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/t...>SecretaryTimothy
> F. Geithner
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/timothy_...>and
> Attorney GeneralEric H. Holder Jr.
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/eric_h_h...>,
> the administration was able to reverse course. The European Parliament
> voted 484 to 109 in July to restart the program after the United States
> made modest concessions that promised greater European oversight.
>
> A version of this article appeared in print on December 6,
> 2010, on page A10 of the New York edition.
--
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