The NY Times just released an article (
Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror) talking about alleged US actions to monitor financial transaction between people suspected of involvment in Terrorism. This leads me to TWO questions:1) What’s the big deal?2) Who is the NY Times to decide to publish this article.
Depends on one’s political view, the questions’ order may be reversed.
Let me explain…. In a world where we know that we:
a) Track criminals by their cell phone,
b) Have a “Do Not Fly” lists, and
c) Computer power is cheap;
Wouldn’t we expect our government to track financial transactions across international boundries? Especially large ones?
I beleive that while the “American Public” might have been surprised, the terror suspects knew something like this is happening for quite some time…
As for the NYT. Without delving into politics, which I might do in further blogs, who the heck do they think they are? This operation, if the story holds:
a) Does not violate US law (to the best of my, very limited knowledge),
b) Probably does some good, and
c) Is CLASSIFIED
The Press, which at times I am proud to be a member of, has a legal way to get information DEclassified. Once it is declassified, it may be published. If it remains classified - why put, as they say, methods and resources at risk?
