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Even if you cannot afford it apply change your mind what ever and get your name in line.

Hear me Jewish and ARab, Italian, French, German, Russian Americans, Native American Indians, Get the lead out.

Apply for all available funds for financing as early as possible. The Spanish are trying to take over Stanford. It is not a race oriented college or based. Speak out discrimination.
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Political. Which other nation would allow such an invasion when it is against the constitution of the USA.

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International transactions: Yes

The Press should be free to report all of the news.

With due respect to the opinions by Mike Lewis and his feeling that there is nothing more un-American than the press I find the statement in complete opposition to the ideals and constitutional protections of free speech. There is nothing that indicates support for our constitutional democratic republic in the suggestion that "We shold lock up all the reporters and just let the President do his job,"..... Our nation is not run by the executive branch of government alone. We are not a dictatorship that would embrace that sentiment. We are a nation run by checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of governement. Those checks and balances were held to be vitally important to the protection of our constitutional government by the founding fathers of this nation.

Specifically as to the press reporting on monitoring banking, and the outcry that the behavior is treasonous. Was it not President Bush himself, who in the weeks after 9-11 was on television telling the entire world that "We are following the money trail. We are going after the finances of the evil doers."

If it is treasonous for the press to report this practice in 2006, why was it not treasonous for the President to tell this to the world on TV in 2001?

The world in which we live today is fraught with many dangers and monitoring financial actions is a logical conclusion in dealing with crime. Every TV show involving crime and detectives, Perry Mason, The Rockford Files, Murder She Wrote, LA Law, you name it, at one point or another has included an episode with the theme..."follow the money". It seems naive that terrorists or anyone would not recognize both that it is needed and it is done.

The question then becomes is it legal. As far as it complies with the laws of our nation, our constitution, and is carried out in such a manner that it is subject to oversight and accountability it is legal also. Where there is no oversight and accountability and the program runs in conflict with our laws and our constitution, the press not only has a right to print the news, but a duty to print the news, to safeguard our nation.

The notion that we somehow are safer from terrorists if we accept violations of the constitution has no logical base of support. The removal of constitutional protections are far more dangerous to our nation than anything that could ever be imposed upon this nation by terrorists.

The problem with your question is the "to detect terrorists" part. How do we know what the government is doing with the information. Is it combing through the telephone records to discover what senators have mistresses? Is it combing through the bank records to see what lawmakers have contacts with the underworld?

Surely, in light of their stonewalling all investigations and their nonsensical complaints, that is just what the goverment IS doing.

In itself, it wouldn't be a bad idea for the people to know which politicians are beholden to the mafia. But in the very partisan hands of the present administration, that sort of information, selectively released, is just what it takes to throw elections and keep the power.

So: NO. It is a bad idea for the government to collect any such information, without the direct supervision of a court which can be seen to be nonpartisan.

The issue is not whether the government should be allowed to monitor bank records to track terrorist activities. I think most people agree they should. The issue is whether they should do so in secret, without congressional authorization, without the proper checks and balances. Clearly, in this case they did so in secret— even though SWIFT has not been a secret and has been public knowledge for years, despite all the idiotic rhetoric we're now hearing.

Does it really benefit terrorists for the administration to monitor bank records (or phone calls) while Congress and other branches exercise proper oversight? It seems obvious to me that if we're fighting the terrorists over anything meaningful, ie. our freedom, then we should not simply relinquish our freedom in the form of oversight when oversight does NOT benefit terrorists. Much to the contrary, oversight benefits us- the American people.

When you fight a monster, watch out that you don't turn into that monster yourself. This is what's happening in the US in terms of restricting civil liberties. The US is becoming more and more the image of the dictators that is trying to ovethrow. In the information age, the notion of "big brother watching you" is more frightening.

While monitoring financial transactions seems less threatening than illegal wire tapping, use of torture, or creation of a network of hidden overseas prisons, this is an Administration which warrants careful watching. Many, many cheers for a vigilant Press which brings to light President Bush's connivances and shame on a Congress which obsequiously follows his dictates.

Actually this question has multi spects. this is true that with the technolgy avilable nothing will remain secret. And if the governments are genuine in their zeal to chase the criminols they can use some methods which are not so ethical. however in this world their are governments which can use this freedom to harrass and torture their own people. therefore the media role is very important to reveal any wrongdoing by the governments.

the media therefore should be praised for their contribution.and the governments should be allowed to monitor the bank records by only transparant means only.

If the Unitied States has the right to monitor every "Terrorist" foreign wire transaction, doesn't every other country have the right to monitor all are transactions too. Why should the US be the only country to monitor them? What safeguards are in place that non friendly country could monitor our transactions.

My daughter lives in Europe. I wire her money from my bank here to her bank. The European bank provided me with their SWIFT Code. The SWIFT Code is equivalent to an American Routing and Transit Number(R&T) that Americans use to pay their bills electronically. The Bush Administration made it seemed that the public knowledge of the SWIFT Code is treasonous.

I think I agree with the tenor of the most of the comments I have read so far - yes, governments should be able to monitor financial transactions for terrorist financing in the same way that we monitor for money-laundering. However, only if someone is monitoring the governments! That's the tricky part - who decides whether the decider has gone out of bounds? Bush's diatribe over the NYT is just more of what we've come to expect, and doesn't really bother me any more. (I guess that's scary.)

When you fight a monster, watch out that you don't turn into that monster yourself. This is what's happening in the US in terms of restricting civil liberties. The US is becoming more and more the image of the dictators that is trying to ovethrow. In the information age, the notion of "big brother watching you" is more frightening.

I wonder how a government can be so naive that they think the "bad people" will give them the evidence as long as no one tells them that they are listening. We are not talking about petty thieves here, but rather international terrorists, they always assume someone is listening. It's obvious that if they have even the least bit of brains (and they do), they will never leave any electronic trails unless they absolutely have to, and if they have to they will make sure it leads to nowhere. It's kind of the same logic that made encryption illegal to export (and want to make it illegal to use) ..... HELLO! the criminals that want to use it, do you think they will suddenly shy away from crime; I think NOT. The math (and source code) behind encryption is in the public domain, it's available everywhere and any criminal wanting to secure his communication will do so no matter how illegal it is, it's a complete waste of time and money to operate this way. That The New York Times reports this to the public when they find out is a non issue in my opinion, but of course they should be allowed to, it's a free country they live in and the press should always report their finding rather than hold back information from the public.

Who is this guy Mike Lewis—SOMBODY QUICk put a muzzle on this guy. Get him a uniform—a steel hat (helmit) and put him on the first AAF plane going to Iraq. Then give him a gun—NO flak jacket—they don't have enough for the troops- and assign him to recovering dead and injured soldiers for the duration. Then let him come back a CHANGED man and maybe not such out of control extremist. The Times did the right thing. The adminstration ALWAy'S lies and manufactures plots when they get caught breaking the law. Thank you Supreme Court you broke the wall they hide behind. The adminstratiom said they would "follow the money" right after 9/11. The terrorists are not stupid—when they are told in advance that the Pres. is looking for the money they just pack up a camel and the move the money around. Mike Lewis take a COLD SHOWER when you get to Iraq

Well I see Karl Rove gang is back! You know the group - The ones who monitor bloggers and be the first to post. See that's why I have issues with the NSA as well

However, this is America and we do have the first amendment - freedom of speech. Oh wait, did bush get to that too?

OMG! Stop already!

Anyway, most of the American People aren't buying this rheotoric anymore

And besides....

YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME BUT YOU CAN'T FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME

here we go again, karl trying to shape the debate on the midterm elections..it's them or us ,loyalty or cut and run ,throw enough crap on the wall, and now if you are from the east you hate america.. WAKE UP PEOPLE THIS IS LAUGHABLE, THEY ARE TRYING THE SAME PLOY AGAIN..THIS GANG HAS NO BUSINESS BEING LEFT IN PLACE TO RUIN THIS COUNTRY FURTHER

There is only one thought comming to my mind. This administration has done nothing, absolutly nothing for the people. They have two thing in their mind, paying back the big companies for their contribution to election like what they are doing with oil cartels and Halliburton, or getting ready for re=election, this time New GOP president and congress. If Bush had his way, he will call like Roosevelt for third term re-election as he say all the time " We are at War ". But about the Bank Accounts, I think, it is one way to go to all Democrat Party members and candidates to find one little problem, and go to Rove for making a storm in the tea pot.
It is only, Much ado about nothing. This administration has no good intention in their mind, they only represent the big ones, nothing else. All the talk about war, by the way thet started all themselves, is a joke.
behrouz kia

Re: Money Trail. I believe in 1986 a law was enacted to catch drug dealers at that time. It requires, including Lawyers or anyone receiving more than $10,000 cash,check or money order to submit CTR. A CTR is a Certified Transfer Report. If this law covers SWIFT at least from US out, I don't see the problem if we have oversite or not,the law is already on the books. Vrspy Buzz BAer Holualoa Hi

some day, we'll look back on this and say, damn I'm glad that's over.

.

Bush's Cabal may be Crimmal but the American Press are the Triators.People like these two asking the Question are Proof.The MSM in American are Far Worst than Pravada Because they Freely Tow the Party Line. In Russia the Pravada Reporters had Little Choice but to do the Government's Bidding They Risked either Death or Prison.American Hacks Only Fear is Losing the Big Bucks and Cushy Jobs Oh and Invites to the WEENIE Parties.Instead of Standing Up for The NYT these two Hacks ask a Loaded Question so as to make thier Boss Bush Look Good and So Goes the Once great Country of America For The Press has Sold You OUT for ACCESS.I say Don't Charge the NYT charge every Reporter that has Covered Up the Crimes of BUSH and You Can Start with these two Stenoes for Journalist They're NOT.I'm So glad I Live in Canada for we Have Our Left leaning Press and Our Right Leaning Press But the Difference Here is When Harper tried to Control the Press Gallery in Ottawa most of The Reporters Walked OUT of his Press briefing.In the US the Reporters Bend Over and KISS BUSH'S BUTT.Thankfully there are More INFORMED Americans than the Dumbed Down and The TRUE Republicans are Awakening unlike IGGY and ZIGGY.

what happened to my comment about NUNS being thrown out of helicopters in Honduras, while Negroponte was ambassadour to Honduras, and George H.W. Bush was director of the CIA...

and no one did anything about it.

I believe they made a movie about it with William DaFoe in it, I could be mistaken....

but complaints _were_ filed against Negroponte, by the preceding ambassadour to Honduras...check it out, I might be making it up..

junior.

.

It seems the rightwingers refuse to notice that Bush was the one who made this program public in 2001, including the use of SWIFT to monitor such transactions.

No matter how many times it is repeated, they shut their eyes and blame the NYTimes, WSJ, etc instead of the man who made it public: The president of the US, George W. Bush.

Now when are they going to call for him to be tried for treason, and all of the other horrible punishments they wish on the NY Times reporters?

as soon as people started saying, Osama Bin Laden was working for the president the tapes stopped coming...

I had heard that the Al Zacarquititor personality was a fabrication by the US government to buttress it's case that there were terrorists.

I don't know if you were watching the Colbert show last night, but a former (for 21 years) agent on the show, said "I thought he was supposed to have one leg....but at the inquest he had two...

On a soundstage in Burbank CA, the Al Zaquaquistor inquest is set as the CSI "effects" crew pulls up in government vehicles...special request from the prezidente'

Uh, JR, what the hell are you on?

President Bush himself had mentioned the tracing of finances numerous times since 9/11.

All the folks who've called Ignatius and Zakaria out on the framing of the debate are right. The press expounded a tiny bit on a program that had been publicized by the VERY ADMINISTRATION that is calling them traitors. To frame the question as if the NYT had broken something that was completely hidden and unheard of is ridiculous and cheap. The Washington Post used to be better than this.

Maybe the press shouldn't have reported on how members of the military have inadequate armor, since now the terrorists know they're easier targets. Maybe the press should've shut up about Abu Ghraib, since that made the terrorists mad. Maybe the press shouldn't have dug in and discovered that there were numerous reports about bin Laden planning a US attack in the months leading up to 9/11, because that showcased our inefficiencies.

Seriously, if we are at the point where we're willing to give up our traditional values and freedoms in the name of not being afraid, then the terrorists have won. That's the point of terrorism. To terrorize you.

You want to rewrite the Constitution because you're scared? Then you are un-American. You're a weak, cowardly little child who does not deserve to be called "American," and I am ashamed you're in my country. If you want to restrict personal freedoms so the government can be stronger, there's a place for you, and it's called North Korea.

Our leaderlesship has for years wanted to monitor how dollars were spent. Corporation and Pentagon alike have been dreaming of the day when they can tap into the wealth of info for the corperate good. there is little doubt that this goes on deeper and wider than anyone wants us to know like the tip of every other iceberg. The war on terror /blank check for the fleecing of the consumer flock. Faux Freedom in our corptocracy.

hmmmmmmmmmm.....I could send the National Guard to Iraq without combat training so that they could help my friends in Kuwiatt, Saudi and the UAE, that would be "nice"...then WE would control all the oil in the world, and with it becoming a scarce resource, it'll be worth even more....won't that be _nice_?

I have no confidence in our present administration. I would venture to say that 70% of the American people have an Intelligence quotient higher than President Bush. I trust that man no further than I can see him in front of me. I absolutely do not trust him behind my back.

Furthermore, I am not very pleased with the make up of Congress either. The majority of Republicans in both houses are nothing more than Bush's little rubber stamps, or should I say condoms?

Let us get rid of them come Novermber.

There's a difference between free speech and aiding and abetting terrorists. Apparently the NYT isn't capable of discerning it. Here's a clue for you. Almost every breakthrough in intelligence or criminal investigations comes about because someone messed up. Maybe the terrorists could have known that financial transactions were monitored, but I'm betting that a significant portion didn't think about it until it was too late. Not all of these guys are rocket scientists, but all of them are dangerous. All terrorists may not have been so sloppy as to use insecure channels to transfer funds, but some undoubtedly were, and were probably caught or at least provided a tipoff that allowed the government to unearth other information. But that's over now.
Now think about it rationally - do you want your son or daughter, or mom, or friend killed by that stupid terrorist who otherwise would have been flagged? Because that's what you're talking about. What the Times did is morally reprehensible, and the knee-jerk defense of their treason makes me question the mental health of a lot of supposedly educated Americans. I just hope the casualties from the "one who got away" are in your family, not mine. And when it happens, I don't want to hear any whinging from the NYT about the administration's inneffectiveness against terrorists.

>>>Yet they refuse to act on this imaginary, illusory, make-believe right. There is NO contitutional right of individuals to posses firearms. ......But when it comes to REAL constitutional rights, the

Yes, do let's talk about illusory, make-believe rights, such as the alleged penumbras around the right to privacy that are such a REAL iron-clad constitutional protection for the right to abortion...

The Press should publish as much as it can regarding this Administration that probably stamps "for your eyes only" and "top secret" on Cheney's lunch card.

Transparency has yet to bring this nation to its knees but undue secrecy and preventing bureaucrats to freely talk to the Press will!

What are America's governing elites afraid of, the PEOPLE?

Now is the time for all good members of the 4th estate to come to the aid of their country. The abuse of power under the guise of the unitary executive and executive privilege, the use of signing statements to lay the groundwork for subversion of the intent of Congress, and the blatant propaganda machine tactics of this Bush administration are a clear call to the press to assert its duty to the citizenry. Are the media summer soldiers and sunshine patriots? The silence of the majority of media outlets is deafening. Into this vacuum, into this abandonment of principles, into this black hole of unreasoned discourse, falls democracy.

We knew on September 24,2001 that Bush was going to monitor the money trail of suspected terrorists. He said so in an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony. The question is, did they do it legally? That's what the Wall St. Journal, NY Times, LA Times articles were investigating.

The NY Times simply joined Gays, Flag Burners and all the others who have been made scapegoats to distract the American people from the criminal incompetence of this administration.

Yes, the press should be able to publish information they find out about governmental activities. Didn't Nixon's people believe they were doing what they were doing "in the interest of the American people"? In light of the financial tracking program, the wire-tapping program, and the constitutional violation of the war tribunals as ruled on by the Supremem Court today, I think someone should give everyone in the Bush administration a copy of "All the President's Men" to review and see what happens when the Administrative Branch oversteps its boundaries!!

US Administration is naive to think that terrorist did not know that all money transfers were monitored. US Government probably did not read 'Days of a Jackal'.
People who were smart enough to plan 9/11 without anyone getting a clue are not stupid to transfer money through normal channels. New York Times story was only secret for the administration, which following same childish policies, have already lost war on terrorism. This is going to have serious consequence for our future generations.

re: publishing bank data

I am glad the US has such a program, and I am suprised they are that competent to think of it, I figured they were monitoring it all along. And any smart terrorist would come to the same conclusion and use that shadow network of fund transfers they have built up which is a banking system without modern banks - rather like the system used by the ancients when Temples were in effect banks.

Meanwhile, publication of this system does not harm, as noted above. And of the US catches a few dumb terrorists or more likely folks like the North Koreans and Iran using the international banking system it would not make that much difference anyways for any number of reasons which any smart reader can figure out.

This is a tricky area but, IMO, technically there was no violation of the law and since it was an arrangement between the US government and a company that is international in nature it can/should continue.

I have had occasion to send money to friends in the former "Eastern Block" and Western Union makes you jump through hoops to realize the task. In addition, there have been laws on the books in the US for many, many years that require banks to report transactions of $10k or larger even when they are totally within the US.

The tempest in this teapot is president Bush and defacto-president Cheney. They are obviously trying to use this report to further throw cold water on any news organization that even thinks of doing real investigative work when it comes to the current administration.

One glaring inconsistency in the argument that we must give up some individual rights and liberties to remain alive is the Administration's treatment of firearm records. They require destroying gun purchase records at the earliest opportunity. They support a bill in Congress to criminalize a law enforcement official's inappropriate sharing of gun records with other law enforcement officials. They have caught terrorists using the gun show loophole to arm themselves for future attacks on America. They have captured Al Qaeda training manuals showing how to use this and other loopholes to purchase the arms with which they will kill us.

Yet they refuse to act on this imaginary, illusory, make-believe right. There is NO contitutional right of individuals to posses firearms. Only a single district court judge in Texas ever found such a right. The US Supreme Court and every federal Court of Appeals to consider the issue has specifically rejected such a fairy-tale right. It is a mere privilege, one which the gov't can, and should, restrict to the full extent necessary to fight terrorism.

But when it comes to REAL constitutional rights, the Administration and its apologists say we must compromise them to save our lives. So compromise the war on terror to protect make-belive, non-existent rights, while we tread all over real constitutional rights in the face of the same threat.

Sorry, but I will not yield on my rights if the NRA doesn't have to yield on its mere privileges.

wrote in his own discussion of the "situation at hand,"

Zatharas said: "...the image is in disrepair now..."

about how the president_elect? bush, image was in disrepair, due to several things happening at_once...

it's interesting that not being able to move beyond _image_ into substance is what is troubling grown_ups

this simple phrase in the bible, "and ye shall know them by their works,"

sums it up nicely...not their fricking words.

I don't care if you quote Rumi, Kabir, Tennyson or whoever, but at some point the public has to understand the difference between image and substance...

propaganda and effectiveness....

this is the only president in our history that handles a friggin national disaster with a photo op and you support that...as_if, that's life and we don't have a choice....we do, we can at the very least talk about it.

Zatharas writes quite well, his thinking or more succinctly his substance is somewhat lacking, i.e. no match for mine.

.

I don't have enough details of the program to know if the government should be doing this, or doing it in this way.

So I guess I'll have to depend on my elected Congressional REpresentative's oversight of the program to protect me from excesses by the executive branch,

Duh, what Congressional oversight?

I guess until we can replace this Congress with one willing to do its job, we're stuck with the NY Times having to defend us from tyrrany. The Washington Post used to do that too, once upon a time.

is pandering to the idea that "looking nice," is the same thing as being nice...

look at bush's niceness,

hmmmmmmmmmm....President of the Arabian Horse Society managing the Federal Emergency Management Association...that would be a "nice," reward for Brownie...

hmmmmmmmmmm.....I could send the National Guard to Iraq without combat training so that they could help my friends in Kuwiatt, Saudi and the UAE, that would be "nice"...then WE would control all the oil in the world, and with it becoming a scarce resource, it'll be worth even more....won't that be _nice_?

those are examples of being _nice_ that we can all live without.

Don't you think?

Low brow? Yeah, listening to Zatharas, not wanting to look bad on the playground and you heed the school gossip.

Please knock it off.

.

the readers and your own publication by limiting discussions to the form as outlined by

your handler, Zatharas or whatever his name is.

To publish dissent, and humour as dissent is to make your paper more interesting. Who wants to read the same old same old?

The guy has a razor sharpe wit, prove him wrong in his accusations of peristaltic stuckness by loosening up...

You want readership? Don't let yourselves be controlled by fear and manipulative processes......look out terrorists might be encouraged by freedom breaking out, right....

The democratic process is founded on the idea that we can weather dissent, but we can not weather control by those who would control based upon false ideals...

or as Ambrose would have said:

hypocrite
n.

One who, professing virtues that he does not respect, secures the advantage of seeming to be what he depises.

America is well informed by the NYTimes article. It's amusing to see the Bushbots rushing to the media to proclaim their "bank transfer oversight" scheme. Clearly, let's call it just what it is: GWBush is once again spying on his erstwhile loyal subjects and with hand in jar, the vicar in the monestary has caught him. Naughty Boy indeed! What a truly incompetent presidency! They dont like government as evidenced by their complete disdain for managing it well, yet they will use it to spy on all of us. Frankly, this midterm election should send them a long lasting message that cannot be misconstrued: You are the most failed Administration and political party in history.

_THIS UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT_

was set up so that the will of the people would be represented. Not the will of a group or family.

I had mentioned earlier that there had been a bush_family presence in the United States Government for well over 55 years...at the Federal level.

One of the reasons that a President may_not hold office for more than 8 years, is that they don't want anyone derailing the democratic process. They had years, centuries of experience dealing with leaders that were miserable examples of human beings.

Our own escape from King George of England occured mostly because he was fighting other battles simultaneously and the ravages of syphillis....sound familiar?

I mentioned that Rumsfeld, Cheyney, Negroponte and several others were nothing more than _part of the family_, that the bushes have established and belong to. This _family_ is international, and belonging to it has has more in common with Royalty than you would like to imagine... Assasinations, control of other countries, court intrigue, managing gossip/propaganda, putting the spin on various family intrigues to make them look quasi-legal, drugs for money, oil_for_economic_control. Acting as_if these actions were for the good of the country, when in fact they are ONLY for the good of the family.

A family that you do not belong to, you may live on the masters lands, but they own the lands, the shops and the buildings that house you...you are prevented from actually having an effect on the world that you build. You are taxed, while their taxes are removed. Witness the attempt to completely remove the estate tax.

Back to basics.

There has been an unbroken FEDERAL connection of the Bush family for more than 50 years...check it out. THIS control of the government by a family is what our system was set up to prevent...the system of checks and balances. This is what must be preserved not the presidents agendae, which you can be assured has nothing to do with patriotism and everything to do with money and favors....

AGAIN: the United States Federal Government has access to the best hardware, intelligence and algorithmic abilities in the world...there is no reason that they couldn't use them, without oversight, for personal gain...drugs for money?noriega/panama/cocaine

IF the president creates a disaster with another country's help and says "he can't leave office," don't be surprised. He's already been successful at defeating the aim of the people that founded this country to establish a different sort of government than rule_by_family...and you helped him by being credulous.

The bank surveillance program is extremely creepy. The government has no business looking at people's financial transactions without probable cause and a warrant. It's just none of their business. And of course, the press has a right to report on it — otherwise we'd never know that the government is screwing us over. Financial info should be as private as your own DNA. Oh wait, that's not protected by the government either. What's next...research for a terrorist gene?

I agree that our Government should be transparent, Let the Papers print whatever they want, Declassify all Nuclear Data, Missile diagrams, and most Importantly get rid of Government background checks and those pesky little machines the government hooks their employees to when they want to know if someone is lying, Why should they go through all of that to protect data that the NY Times can print with the expressed approval of all of the democratic Senators.

as a foreigner I really would like to know whether you as americans would happily agree to share your personal account information with the government of let's say portugal ? (lets not assume for now that this fictionous portuguese government has a somewhat bad reputation for being secretive and ill willed against for example americans ...)

There a couple, U.S. Citizens, who few months ago decided to payoff a $6k credit card bill in one payment. They were flagged and scrutinized. Under the Patriot Act, this is allowed. We need oversight, I don't trust any politician, unchecked, to do my bidding.
People are elected and are supposed to do the"people's business." This current crop is doing the "people's business," but it's the corportations.

I work in the US, and I pulled up the wire transfer request form that's available to the thousand employees who work in my organization.

There's a line there that reads, "SWIFT Number."

We're not some cryptic intelligence agency or anything. We're a research and education nonprofit. We know about SWIFT. For the administration to say (through Tony Snow) that people didn't know about SWIFT or its uses in the banking world and law enforcement world is preposterous.

The answer to the first question is yes. The second question is irrelevent to the NY Times piece, because Bush had already publicized the program, loads of people both inside and outside the US already knew about SWIFT, and anyone with half a brain could put two and two together to figure out that maybe the SWIFT codes for different banks could be used to track finances.

But if you really want an answer to the second question, the government of, by, and for the people ought to be just as transparent as it asks its citizens to be. So, yes, if there were an ACTUAL secret program (this SWIFT thing was a huge non-secret secret), and it affected private citizens, then, yes, the press should report on it.

Quaden and Reynders are traitors. They should be put on trial for treason.

Le roi, Albert.

I don't see what the problem is. You can ALWAYS trust the government. Anyone who thinks differently hates America.

This is a no brainer. We are at war with terrorists who have no rules of engagement and certainly a complete disregard for human life, including their own. Therefore, we have to fight dirty, any way we have to. Those who insist on revealing our secrets are as bad as the terrorists themselves and should be charged with treason - absolutely no question.

Media oversight of and reporting on what the government is up to is an absolute necessity to preserve our democracy at any time — and for what's left of it at this time. I will place my trust in newspapers like the Post or the Times a lot quicker than I will in an elected politician, especially when government actions place the preservation of our liberties so much at risk. The Bush/Cheney crowd obviously want to shield their policies and actions from public view. This is scary, given their record, and we need, and must have, vigorous media investigation and reporting of their every move.

If the press learns secrets about these anti-terrorist surveillance programs, should they publish them?

In my openion these anti-terrorist survellance programs are very important not only for Americans but for the whole world. Secrecy is needed to get best out of these programs. Breaking this secrecy will not help the government it's objective. And it will not help ordinary citizens. Rather breaking the secrecy of these programs press should focus on misuse of these programs. This will definitely help innocents and ordinary citizens.

As if the terrorists weren't already doing as much as possible to conceal these sort of transactions. No operational details were revealed, no harm done. The program SHOULD continue and the press SHOULD report on it. It's not like terrorists were opening checking accounts in their real names until they read the NYT article. Apparently the USG thinks that all organizations are as incompetent as it is.

The "Government" is not just the President, or even necessarily a "high" official. When asked who chose which phonecall to tap, Gen. Hayden responded..."the shift supervisor..." Likely the same level applies to the person selecting which bank accounts to tap.

So, just who is the "shift supervisor?" Most likely someone in the mid-level ranks of the Govt. Probably not even a senior official within an Agency or Division of an Agency - they have better things to do. May not even be a Branch Chief (can't see them going thru millions of bank accounts to target which ones to "open."

So, when forming an opinion on this subject, just recognize, that the "average American" is subject to "search" by the person next door once they become "the shift supervisor." And, there's no one watching the "shift supervisor" either. What's the chance your personal information is targeted, probably a lot higher than you think.

And to penalize the press for reporting the truth, is to try and break the light which shines on the shady nefarious deeds of the adminstration. (kinda like sunlight on a vampire) I understand there are always concerns about national security. But if there are concerns about the constitutionality of government actions, let the press report the facts. And if it is deemed that the governemnt is wrong, then the truth has been brought to light for the public to see. And if the press is wrong then they should be held accountable. But that is for a court to determine, not the corrupt adminstration which has done wrong.

Terrorists cannot do serious, long term damage to the U.S. and what it stands for, any more than the U.S. can eradicate radical Islam. Ideas cannot be summarily stomped out, and Charles Colson ("Get them by the balls, and their hearts and minds will follow") was wrong.

9/11 was horrific, but how the executive branch used it (expanding executive power at the expense of the other two branches, eroding civil liberties, cover for an unnecessary war, attacking those who disagree with it as unpatriotic) is far more damaging to the ideal of America. The current administration has no idea of what America is about or what truly threatens it.

Go ahead, monitor my bank records. But you *damn* well better have a law that says you're on solid ground (not one of Gonzalez's ...ummm... creative readings), and the judiciary looking over your shoulder, because *that's* America. And if you don't, don't come crying to me that the Times broke your rice bowl. Trust you? I trust you as far as I can comfortably spit out a rat. I don't like you, I don't trust you, and I don't respect you, because, by your past acts, you've done nothing to earn any of those.

Given the current circumstances, it is OK for the government to violate privacy policies. Security takes higher precedence to privacy. Every policy will have both good and bad effects. Success of any policy depends on the outcome. So far the outcome of this policy is good. We did not have any terror attack and we did not hear any misuse of this data. So, there is nothing wrong.