Bank Data Secretly Reviewed by U.S. to Fight Terror

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Jun 26 2006, 08:37 PM) [snapback]277178[/snapback]</div>

Funny you should mention that. The Bank Secrecy Act was passed by a Democratic congress in 1970, and it requires that banking institutions report certain financial transactions using the following forms:

Perhaps you don't think terrorists should be subject to the same laws you are subject to, but the fact remains, there is no right of privacy that attaches to financial transactions. Never has been, and never will be. Don't let your hatred of a single President blind you to what's happening in this particular case.

It is a myth that this was a secret program that only Bush and his "Oil Buddies" knew about. The letter from Treasury Secretary John Snow to Bill Keller, the Managing Editor of The New York Times, includes this paragraph:

See the complete letter at National Review Online

Blind ambition and corporate greed prompted these papers to print this story and alert terrorists. We now know the terrorist Hambali was captured in August of '03 due to the SWIFT program. He was the mastermind/financier of the Bali bombings, and this program was able to capture him without bloodshed and without the lives of innocents threatened. Now his uncaptured associates can cover their tracks and avoid capture.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Jun 26 2006, 08:37 PM) [snapback]277178[/snapback]</div>

No, you've got that slightly wrong: The Republicans (ever since the borrow-and-overspend neo-cons took the party over from the fiscal conservatives, with the help of the religious fanatics) are all about keeping government out of the business of Big Business, and getting its nose firmly into the bedrooms and the private affairs of ordinary citizens.

 

None of this is a particularly big secret, when you consider that
even for a NON-INTEREST-BEARING account, banks are federally required
to collect your SSN to associate with the account. That tells you
right up front that the feds want to keep tabs on you. I forget
what the relevant law is called but it did come into being post-911.
.
_H*

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Schmika @ Jun 26 2006, 11:46 PM) [snapback]277184[/snapback]</div>

i actually was musing on what IMO is (was?) one of the merits of the right. i just think it's a shame that they don't seem to consider this part of their platform anymore.

 

Galaxee is right... the Republican electorate changed in the 1900s... from starting initially in perhaps to the 40s and ending at perhaps around the 70s (I may be wrong on the figures, but not the change in electorate)... Republicans before, during, and sometime after the Civil War were the champions of civil rights until the electorate changed to include, essentially, neocons.