US defends secret money tracking

[chromium05]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5110282.stm

Here we go again. Yet another secret US Government program that involves monitoring - this time not just US citizens but global. And how much money is transfered between points, by whom etc.... all in the name of security.

Bollocks.

Has this story seen the light of day on US news channels?

[catatonic]

..

[kaiser soze]

The weight of their treason is breaking our Constitution

This nation needs to Impeach them, see them Resign, or begin the Revolution

[Schmeltz]

Hold up a second. When was the last time any of you performed an international financial transaction? The most complicated monetary exchange I have ever performed is paying my rent and bills through an institution several blocks from my house. I think most people could say the same.

What does it mean for the American government to track complex intercontinental money-changing? Who is the American government? A bunch of (largely inefficient and incompetent) businessmen. Who will form the next American government? The exact same people. These guys are just looking out for their own. I don't think they really care about a few bucks wired here and there. What this really is, is the establishment tracking the establishment. It's a little worrisome in principle, but there is no bureaucracy sufficiently competent enough to bother with the billions of monetary transactions that must occur in America every day. The rich old useless fuckers are using the power they have to track each other and make sure they're not getting one-upped. Same old, same old.

[TimDoolan]

There is a big difference between "illegal" and "inadmissable" evidance in court. I know the limeys overseas dont give a shit about the Italian mafia, but fbi agents were able to destroy the largest crime ring in the united states through secret wire tapping, money tracking, and whatever else the fuck they had to do to get those scumbags out of power.

And get what? It worked.

[catatonic]

Hold up a second. When was the last time any of you performed an international financial transaction? The most complicated monetary exchange I have ever performed is paying my rent and bills through an institution several blocks from my house. I think most people could say the same.

What does it mean for the American government to track complex intercontinental money-changing? Who is the American government? A bunch of (largely inefficient and incompetent) businessmen. Who will form the next American government? The exact same people. These guys are just looking out for their own. I don't think they really care about a few bucks wired here and there. What this really is, is the establishment tracking the establishment. It's a little worrisome in principle, but there is no bureaucracy sufficiently competent enough to bother with the billions of monetary transactions that must occur in America every day. The rich old useless fuckers are using the power they have to track each other and make sure they're not getting one-upped. Same old, same old.

I've bought a few things internationally and in different currencies.

But couldn't they also seek transactions that challenge the corporate establishment, like an electric car or a free energy device, so they could shut it down in an undetectable fashion? Basically if some inventor found a way to challenge the establishment with technology. Couldn't they also use it to time people's overall financial insecurity with political conditioning in advertising for their party?

But anyway a representative came on PBS and said it's nowhere near what I said and not even what you said, that a transaction can only be seen by making a specific terrorism-related search.

[D_Raay]

How are any of these disclosures actually impairing the pursuit of terrorists?

Terrorists already knew the government was trying to track them down through their finances, their phone calls and their e-mails. Within days of the Sept. 11 attacks, for instance, Bush publicly declared open season on terrorist financing. As far as I can tell, all these disclosures do is alert the American public to the fact that all this stuff is going on without the requisite oversight, checks and balances.

How does it possibly matter to a terrorist whether the government got a court order or not? Or whether Congress was able to exercise any oversight? The White House won’t say. In fact, it can’t say.