Bush Slams Times
President Bush slammed the New York Times and the other media outlets that revealed the money transfer monitoring. Indications are that the program will probably continue. There is no way to tell how effective it will be anymore, though since it has been compromised.
"For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said, jabbing his finger for emphasis. He said the disclosure of the program "makes it harder to win this war on terror."
The program has been going on since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It was disclosed last week by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
Using broad government subpoenas, the program allows U.S. counterterrorism analysts to obtain financial information from a vast database maintained by a company based in Belgium. It routes about 11 million financial transactions daily among 7,800 banks and other financial institutions in 200 countries.
"Congress was briefed and what we did was fully authorized under the law," Bush said, talking with reporters in the Roosevelt Room after meeting with groups that support U.S. troops in Iraq.
Officials are not saying they will try to prosecute the Times at the moment, but they did issue a pretty clearly worded warning to them:
Later, White House spokesman Tony Snow said it was up to the Justice Department to determine whether there would be a formal investigation of the news leak.
"Certainly nobody is going to deny First Amendment rights. But the New York Times and other news organizations ought to think long and hard about whether a public's right to know in some cases might override somebody's right to live," Snow said. "And whether, in fact, the publication…could place in jeopardy the safety of fellow Americans."
That hits the right note I think.
By Roland Hesz, June 27, 2006 @ 2:27 am
And the US Government ought to think about letting the EU know that they are spying on EU residents without the knowledge of their government.
Common courtesy, and such.