Top falsehoods about NY Times and Bush bank-tracking program

[WePurrsevere]

This was written by Media Matters and originally posted on DU by Norml in DU's GD area here. Hopefully no one will mind my cross posting it in here since I think it has some very useful debunking information. B-)

Summary: In response to the reports describing a Treasury Department program designed to monitor international financial transactions for terrorist activity, President Bush and other White House officials lashed out at the media -- and The New York Times in particular -- for purportedly undermining the government's antiterrorism efforts. But as with the disclosure of the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance and domestic call-tracking programs, the administration and its supporters in the media have relied on numerous false and misleading claims to support their arguments.

On June 23, The New York Times and several other newspapers detailed a Treasury Department program designed to monitor international financial transactions for terrorist activity. According to the Times article, shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration tapped into a vast database of international financial transactions maintained by a banking consortium known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) in order to "trac transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda."

In response to the reports describing the program, President Bush and other White House officials lashed out at the media -- and the Times in particular -- for purportedly undermining the government's antiterrorism efforts. Numerous conservative media figures joined the administration in lambasting the Times, some even accusing the paper of treason and suggesting that the editors and reporters responsible for the Times article should be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. But as with the disclosure of both the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program and domestic call-tracking program, the administration and its supporters in the media have relied on numerous false and misleading claims to support their arguments.

Falsehood: Times article tipped off terrorists to U.S. bank-tracking efforts

In the wake of the June 23 Times article, Bush administration officials and numerous conservative media figures claimed that the newspaper had informed terrorists that their international transactions were being monitored. Vice President Dick Cheney said that the story "will enable the terrorists to look for ways to defeat our efforts." Treasury Secretary John W. Snow wrote that the article had "alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their money trails." Meanwhile, right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin claimed that the Times had "tipped off terrorists to America's efforts to track their financial activities." Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby alleged that the reports on the program "sabotaged" and "deliberately compromised a crucial counterterrorism tool." And the editors of National Review warned, "The terrorists will now adapt. They will find new ways of transferring funds, and precious lines of intelligence will be lost."

More Here: http://mediamatters.org/items/200606290003

[Sweet Freedom]

1. Readers: If referencing this, please see this thread as well

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=284x216