More Ironclad SWIFT Logic

Taking another whack at excusing the exposure of national security secrets, Howard Kurtz quotes a Boston Globe story by Bryan Bender saying information about the banking-data program was already out there:

Turning now to the Beltway furor of the week: What if the banking program, the disclosure of which has sparked calls for the tarring and feathering of the New York Times, wasn't such a big secret after all?

This Boston Globe piece has some interesting details (and yes, it's own by the NYT Co. but is not known for carrying corporate water):

"News reports disclosing the Bush administration's use of a special bank surveillance program to track terrorist financing spurred outrage in the White House and on Capitol Hill, but some specialists pointed out that the government itself has publicly discussed its stepped-up efforts to monitor terrorist finances since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks . . .

"A search of public records -- government documents posted on the Internet, congressional testimony, guidelines for bank examiners, and even an executive order President Bush signed in September 2001 -- describe how U.S. authorities have openly sought new tools to track terrorist financing since 2001. That includes getting access to information about terrorist-linked wire transfers and other transactions, including those that travel through SWIFT.

" 'There have been public references to SWIFT before,' said Roger Cressey, a senior White House counterterrorism official until 2003. 'The White House is overreaching when they say [The New York Times committed] a crime against the war on terror. It has been in the public domain before.'

That must be the reason the New York Times gave their scoop the hed Bank Data Is Sifted In Secret To Block Terror. Because everyone knew what they were doing already.

There are at least two major defenses being attempted with this story. One, it's important to expose national security secrets because of abuses that would otherwise go unknown. Two, it's not a secret. Depending on the day and the audience I suppose. After citing the story, Kurtz adds:

There's even a SWIFT Web site .

Should I even bother?

• CIA
• NSA
• Defense Intelligence Agency
• It's kind of a long list
• You have got to be kidding, Howard.

Comments

[Planet Moron]

Asking the media to engage in critical self-examination is like asking a Kennedy if he has a substance abuse problem. They always have to wreck the car first before they believe it.

Unfortunately, we're all in the same car with this one and since we've gone from the NSA wiretapping story (a borderline case in my book) to this latest one, it feels like we're getting closer to the guardrail.

Okay, better put the brakes on this metaphor before I run out of gas.

Aw, crap.