Archive for June 22nd, 2006
Among the program’s successes was the capture of an Al Qaeda operative known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said.
New York Times: Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror
Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.
The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database.
Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia, the officials said.
Another Leak of a secret United States program to combat terrorism brought to you by the leakers of the NSA Surveillance program, ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN.
Remember James Risen and his New Year’s surprise?
So, read the rest of the piece here.
The Bush administration has made no secret of its campaign to disrupt terrorist financing, and President Bush, Treasury officials and others have spoken publicly about those efforts. Administration officials, however, asked The New York Times not to publish this article, saying that disclosure of the Swift program could jeopardize its effectiveness. They also enlisted several current and former officials, both Democrat and Republican, to vouch for its value.
Bill Keller, the newspaper’s executive editor, said: “We have listened closely to the administration’s arguments for withholding this information, and given them the most serious and respectful consideration. We remain convinced that the administration’s extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest.”
The Swift Program is NOT illegal and most of the activity occurs in a foreign location. So, why leak a secret program that has been protecting American from terrorism? Because some anonynmopus sources question the proprieatry of the program or is it because the New York Times and its employees want a scoop at any cost?
Is this responsible journalsim?
Should the leakers of classified information that served as the basis of the story be prosecuted?
You betcha!
The first subpoenas should be directed at Lichtblau, Risen and Keller. The Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, should seek out the traitors who stole this classified information and gave it to the media whores at the New York Times.
The Swift Program:
And the program had been successful in finding terrorist cells. Flap says had because he doubts the program will continue now that it is public and terrorists adapt.
Data provided by the program helped identify Uzair Paracha, a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges in 2005, officials said.
The Los Angeles Times has just picked up and posted the story as well: U.S. Mining Bank Transfer Data in Anti-Terror Effort
The U.S. government, without the knowledge of many banks and their customers, has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by accessing a vast database of confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide.
The program, run by the Treasury Department, is considered a potent weapon in the war on terrorism because of its ability to clandestinely monitor financial transactions and map terrorist webs.
Dean Baquet, the editor of the Times, said: “We weighed the government’s arguments carefully, but in the end we determined that it was in the public interest to publish information about the extraordinary reach of this program. It is part of the continuing national debate over the aggressive measures employed by the government.”
In other words, the Los Angeles Times says to Hell with the secret nature of the anti-terror program and National Security because it is in the “public interest” to make Americans LESS SAFE FROM TERRORISTS.
THIS IS BULL!
Michelle Malkin has a good round-up of reactions from the blogosphere: NYTIMES BLABBERMOUTHS STRIKE AGAIN
The NYTimes has in-house produced video showcasing Licthblau as he “reveals a secret Bush administration program to access to financial records.”
ABP
Bryan Preston
Patterico
Jeff Goldstein
Write the New York Times( letters@nytimes.com ) and the Los Angeles Times and voice your displeasure. Better yet refuse to purchase their publications for allowing Americans to be placed in MORE jeopardy from terrorists.
Stephen Spruiell has it RIGHT: NYT: We’re Still Above the Law
According to the NYT’s own reporting, the program is legal. The program is helping us catch terrorists. The administration has briefed the appropriate members of Congress. The program has built-in safeguards to prevent abuse. And yet, with nothing more than a vague appeal to the “public interest” (which apparently is not outweighed in this case by the public’s interest in apprehending terrorists), the NYT disregards all that and publishes intimate, classified details about the program. Keller and his team really do believe they are above the law. When it comes to national security, it isn’t the government that should decide when secrecy is essential to a program’s effectiveness. It is the New York Times.
National security be damned. There are Pulitzers to be won.
Patterico says these guys are dangerous.
They are to a fault.
Technorati Tags: NewYorkTimes, Swift, LosAngelesTimes, Terrorism, AlQaeda, JamesRisen, EricLichtblau, Bill Keller
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Aegis Ship-Based BMD
AFP: Successful missile intercept reported in US sea-based defense test
A US warship successfully shot down a target missile warhead over the Pacific in a test of a sea-based missile defense system, the US military said.
A Japanese destroyer performed surveillance and tracking exercises during the test, marking the first time any US ally has taken part in a US missile defense intercept test, the US Missile Defense Agency said.
The test came amid a confrontation with North Korea over its preparations to launch a long-range missile.
The sea-based system tested off Hawaii is designed to counter only short or medium range missiles, but the cruisers and destroyers that took part are capable of tracking long-range missiles as well.
The mock warhead was launched over the Pacific atop a medium range missile and destroyed in a direct hit six minutes later with an SM-3 missile fired by the Aegis cruiser USS Shiloh, the agency said.
“The missile successfully intercepted the target warhead outside the earths atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kauai,” the agency said in a statement.
“We are continuing to see great success with the very challenging technology of hit-to-kill, a technology that is used for all of our missile defense ground- and sea-based interceptor missiles,” Lieutenant General Trey Obering, the agency chief, said in the statement.
He said it was the seventh successful intercept using the sea-based missile defense system out of eight tries.
Diplomacy appears the course of action for President Bush. But, the military assets will be in place for interception and a preemptive strike cannot be ruled out.
The Missile Defense Agency has demonstrated its readiness and offers America a defensive as well as an offensive option to North Korea’s missile threat. Flexibility in response to world nuclear crisis is something the United States never had before President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Does the LEFT see its relevance yet?
Probably not…….
Stay tuned……
A commercial satellite photo of North Korea’s Nodong missile launch site taken on by a Digital Globe satellite and annotated and released by analysts at GlobalSecurity.org on May 24, 2006. The United States and Japan warned North Korea on Monday against a missile launch that experts say could reach as far as Alaska and threatened harsh action if the test flight goes ahead.
Discuss this blog post and MORE…. at the FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blogs, My Dental Forum.
Previous:
North Korea Watch: United States Says “NO†to Direct Talks
North Korea Watch: Direct Talks with the United States?
North Korea Watch: Korea Says it “Is NOT Bound†by Missile Test Ban
North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield – Part 2
North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield
North Korea Watch: North Korea Threatens to “Mercilessly Wipe Out†US Forces In Case of War
North Korea Watch: North Korea Close to Test Firing Taepodong-2 Missile – Capable of Reaching Mainland United States
North Korea Watch: North Korea Denies Reported Plans to Test-Fire a Long-Range Missile Capable of Reaching the U.S. Mainland
North Korea Watch: Preparing to Launch A Long Range Ballistic Missile?
North Korea Watch: North Koreans Can and Have Made a Few Nuclear Devices
North Korea Harvesting More Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons
North Korea Warned
Technorati Tags: NorthKorea, KimJongIl, MissileDefenseAgency
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Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Tehran’s national security council and of its nuclear negotiating team, speaks to the students of Tehran’s universities at the Bahman cultural center in Tehran February 14, 2006. Iran could stop enriching uranium at best only as a result of negotiations with big powers, but not as a precondition for such talks as they demand, Vaeedi said on Thursday.
Reuters: Iran could halt fuel work only after talks: negotiator
Iran could stop enriching uranium at best only as a result of negotiations with big powers, but not as a precondition for such talks as they demand, a senior Iranian official said on Thursday.
It appeared to be the first time Tehran had hinted at the possibility of suspending nuclear fuel enrichment the West sees as an atomic bomb risk. But the insistence that this could only happen after negotiations was likely to be rejected by the major powers.
Iran would never renounce its “legitimate right” to civilian atomic energy under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, said Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Tehran’s national security council and of its nuclear negotiating team.
Vaeedi also said Iran was taking its time to reply to an offer of economic incentives to halt nuclear work — prompting U.S. accusations of stalling — in order “to maximize the chances of success of this proposal.”
“Iran considers a suspension of uranium enrichment not as a precondition for talks, rather in the best case as a result of talks,” he said in a speech to a rightist political foundation in Vienna, headquarters of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.
“Negotiations without preconditions are the only way to a peaceful resolution of this crisis,” he said. Vaeedi spoke in Farsi and his remarks were translated into English and German.
Iran continues to be in a hard place diplomatically, as a result of Condoleezza Rice’s gambit. A uranium enrichment halt will always be a pre-condition for any Big 6 initiative. But, Iran, even should they wish to accept the Big 6 offer will have to “save face” with its own people and the other Arab/Islamic states.
Let Flap help them out of their dilemma.
What if Iran were to propose a plan to halt the enrichment of uranium for ten years (along with full IAEA inspections), coupled with all of the other incentives offered by the West (e.g. light water reactor, trade aid, direct talks with USA, technology transfers from USA, including airlines and airplane parts, etc.)? The face saving part would be that Iran continues its soverign right to enrchment but as a matter of expedience/benefit of Iran and in the face of world concerns is willing to accept a brief moratorium. Flap is positive this will be acceptable to the West.
But, if Iran wants to continue uranium enrichment to build nuclear weapons, they won’t accept this modified offer either.
So, this statement by Vaeedi and the continued stalling by Ahmadinejad means Iran has not yet worked out a game plan. Iran will need to act soon or face the United Nations Security Council.
Stay tuned…..
Previous:
Iran Nuclear Watch: President Bush Rejects August Iranian Response to Big 6 Proposal
Cox & Forkum: Forked Tongue
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Accuses the United States of Pushing Europe Away from Compromise
Iran Nuclear Watch: President Ahmadinejad – Big 6 Proposal a “Step Forwardâ€
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Would “Use Nuclear Defense†If Threatened
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Sends Mixed Signals on Big 6 Proposal?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei REJECTS Suspension of Uranium Enrichment
 The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
Technorati Tags: Iran, MahmoudAhmadinejad
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Newsbusters.org: Los Angeles Times, Others Ignore Discovery of WMD in Iraq
Upon the recent discovery that 500 chemical weapons have been found in Iraq, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), with Rep. Pete Hoesktra (R-MI) at his side, announced yesterday (Wed. June 21, 2006) some stunning news: “We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons.” If you thought such an eye-opening story would merit at least a syllable or two in today’s Los Angeles Times (Thu. June 22, 2006), think again. There is not a single word on the story in today’s paper. Of course, the Times found plenty of room above the fold on their front page to play up the charges of murder against U.S. troops: “8 U.S. Troops Charged in Iraqi’s Death.”
Summary: 1374 words and a photo for charges of murder against our troops … 0 words and 0 photos for coalition troops finding lost WMD in Iraq. Good grief.
Regular readers of NewsBusters should find that the Times’ ignoring of this story should come as little surprise. NewsBusters has documented several cases of the Times either downplaying good news for the Bush administration or ignoring news that may be unflattering to Democrats (here and here are just a couple of many examples).
Spook86 has more and so does Investors Business Daily.
Why the silence Los Angeles Times?
No more mantra: Bush Lied and People Died?
Technorati Tags: losangelestimes, WMD, IraqWar, SaddamHussein
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A Miami police officer stands watch at the Port of Miami, February 21, 2006. The FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies made arrests on Thursday as part of ongoing investigations into a ‘terrorist-related matter,’ U.S. prosecutors in Miami said.
ABC News: Federal Agents Raid Suspected Terror Cell in Miami
Officials Say Group Planned to Bomb the FBI Building in Miami and Sears Tower in Chicago
ABC News has learned that federal agents, including the FBI, are launching a series of raids tonight targeting a suspected terror cell based in Miami.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, the group allegedly planned to bomb the FBI building in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago.
The group has been under surveillance for some time and was infilitrated by a government informant who allegedly led them to believe he was an Islamic radical. The suspects are described as African Americans and at least one man of Caribbean descent.
Sources say the arrests reflect the government’s concern about so-called “homegrown terrorists.” It’s a threat FBI Director Robert Mueller discussed during a recent speech in New York.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the FBI are expected to hold a press conference about the arrests Friday morning.
It is a dangerous world.
CNN: FBI arrests 7 in domestic terrorism probe
FBI agents were raiding sites in Miami, Florida, on Thursday in connection with a domestic terrorism investigation, law enforcement sources said.
Officials said no weapons or bomb-making materials had been found in the searches so far.
The FBI told CNN that seven arrests were made in connection with “suspected domestic terrorist activity,” and that documents related to the investigation have been sealed.
The FBI said one search warrant was being executed in a warehouse near a housing project in Liberty City, a predominantly black and low-income area of Miami.
“We are conducting a number of arrests and searches, and we’ll have more about that when the operation is completed, probably tomorrow morning,” FBI Director Robert Mueller told CNN’s Larry King in an interview to be broadcast Thursday night.
Flap wonders if the NSA was involved…..more tomorrow……
Allah has more and updates.
Blogosphere:
Technorati Tags: globalwaronterror, terrorists, FBI
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White House budget director Rob Portman is seen on Capitol Hill, May 11, 2006. President Bush’s drive for line-item veto power to control deficit-spending is facing resistance in the U.S. House of Representatives where the outcome of a vote scheduled for Thursday is in doubt, Portman said on Tuesday.
AP: House approves watered-down line-item veto
President Bush would receive greater power to try to kill “pork barrel” spending projects under a bill passed Thursday by the House.
Lawmakers voted to give Bush and his successor a new, weaker version of the line-item veto law struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998, despite a recent series of lopsided votes in which they’ve rallied to preserve each other’s back-home projects. It would expire after six years.
The idea advances amid increasing public concern about lawmakers’ penchant for stuffing parochial projects into spending bills that the president must accept or reject in their entirety.
The House passed the bill by a 247-172 vote. Thirty-five Democrats joined with most Republicans in voting for the bill; 15 Republicans opposed the measure and others voted for the bill despite private reservations.
The measure must still pass the Senate, and that’s by no means a certainty.
The bill would allow the president to single out items contained in appropriations bills he signs into law, and it would require Congress to vote on those items again. It also could be used against increases in benefit programs and tax breaks aimed at a single beneficiary.
Under the proposal, it would take a simple majority in both the House and the Senate to approve the items over the president’s objections.
Well, this bill is better than nothing but NOT by much. And this bill is far weaker than the bill passed while Bill Clinton was in office – but later declared overtruned by the U.S. Supreme Court. In that particular bill, the President could strike out an item from appropriations or tax legislation and the Congress would have to overturn this veto by a 2/3 vote.
The Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional two years later because it let the president single-handedly change laws passed by Congress.
It’s not clear that the new spending control tool would be very effective. Congress easily mustered the two-thirds margins needed to override Clinton’s 1997 vetoes of military construction projects. More recently, lawmakers have united to reject attacks by a lone conservative, Rep. Jeff Flake (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., to strip from spending bills the very kind of projects the new line-item veto is aimed at attacking.
But, the pork-laden federal budget has to be controlled. There is too much parochial spending. If this legislation fails in the U.S. Senate, then the House should introduce a constitutional amendment and give the President a stronger and true line-item veto.
Stay tuned….
Captain Ed has Line-Item Veto Passes House
The roll call vote can be found here. Voters concerned about earmarks and corruption should note those who opposed this measure. The following Republicans decided to back away from the line-item veto:
Aderholt
Buyer (there’s a name for you!)
Emerson
Hobson
Jones (NC)
Lewis (CA)
Northrup
Otter
Paul
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Simmons
Simpson
Sweeney
Walsh
The inclusion of Jerry Lewis, the head of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, comes as no surprise. After all, Lewis sent $11 million in earmarks to Trident Systems, whose president paid Lewis’ stepdaughter almost a third of all the money raised by his PAC, for which she was employed. Lewis doesn’t want to lose his political heft and ability to direct federal funds to the beneficiaries of his family — which gives us more reason to cheer this vote.
Technorati Tags: lineitemveto
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Graphic Courtesy of San Francisco Chronicle
Daily Kos: TNR’s defection to the Right is now complete
Ludicrous, all of it, but that’s the new rules of the game. TNR and its enablers are feeling the heat of their own irrelevance and this is how they fight it — by undermining the progressive movement. Zengerle has made common cause with the wingnutosphere, using the laughable “kosola” frame they created and emailing his “scoops” to them for links. This is what the once-proud New Republic has evolved into — just another cog of the Vast RIGHT Wing Conspiracy.
If you still hold a subscription to that magazine, it really is time to call it quits. If you see it in a magazine rack, you might as well move it behind the National Review or even NewsMax, since that’s who they want to be associated with these days.
What is the Flap for Kos to tell all of his Leftie Nutters to quit TNR?
Well it is PAY TO PLAY.
And The New Republic called him out…….
Hugh Hewitt has Splitter!
Kos goes Life of Brian on The New Republic.
Now, does Kos’ line about the magazine’s “Lieberman-worshipping neocon owners” get close to whispering “the Jooos did it”?
DailyKos is home to anti-Semitic cartoons after all.
Yesterday I posted on Kos’ refusal to repudiate his disgusting “screw them” comment and the absurd defense he offered of it. Today’s outburst is another marker on his road to irrelevance. Whether Democratic Party leaders want to follow him there is up to them, but they should be on record about his post today.
So, how about it LEFT?
How will you rationalize this “ATTEMPTED COVER UP?”
Markos Moulitsas “Screw Them†Zuniga and U.S Senate candidate Ned Lamont in Hartford.
How much has the Lamont campaign paid you to hype his candidacy?
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Daily Kos Watch: Pay to Play in the Blogosphere?
Technorati Tags: MarkosMoulitsasZuniga, DailyKos, Kos, HughHewitt, NedLamont, JoeLieberman
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