White House Says
Tracking Bank Data
Deters Terror
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, NYTimes on the Web, June 23, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC -- The White
House vigorously defended today a secret program of combing through a vast
international data base containing banking transactions involving thousands of
Americans. Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials said the
program, whose existence was revealed on Thursday night by The New York Times,
was both legal and necessary to deter terrorism.
Treasury Secretary John Snow, in his first public remarks about the program,
called it "government at its best." He told reporters that the operation
was carefully controlled to trace only those transactions with an identifiable
link to possible terrorist activity.
"There can't be any doubt about the fact that the program is an effective
weapon, an effective weapon in the larger war on terror," he said. "It's
for that reason that these disclosures of the particular sources and methods are
so regrettable."
Separately, President Bush's spokesman, Tony Snow, said the program complies
with "the letter and spirit of the law." He said members of Congressional
intelligence committees had been apprised of the program, though he did not
provide specifics.
Mr. Snow derided criticisms of the program as "entirely abstract in nature."
He said it had been subjected to outside auditing, and that the president did
not need to seek authorization from Congress for it.
"Let me tell you why this is important: it works," Mr. Snow said.
"It is sought only for terrorism investigations. A series of safeguards
have been put in place."
The banking consortium, known as Swift, that maintains the database gave no sign
today that it was rethinking its relationship with the American government,
despite the sudden glare of publicity aimed at an organization that generally
keeps a very low profile.
Prior to publication of the article, some backers of the program had expressed
concerns that Swift, based in Brussels, could be prompted to pull out of the
program if its role were revealed — particularly in light of sharp anti-American
sentiments in parts of Europe. But an official with Swift, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said today that there had been "no discussions" about a
withdrawal.
Still, there were indications of possible disagreements between Swift and the
American government over the group's role and how it came to cooperate.
Swift has said that its role in the program was never voluntary, that it was
obligated to comply with a valid subpoena presented by American officials, and
that it worked to narrow the range of data it provided.
But Secretary Snow offered a different account at a news conference today.
He said that after the Sept. 11 attacks, Treasury officials initially presented
Swift with "really narrowly crafted subpoenas all tied to terrorism," only to be
told by Swift that it did not have the ability to "extract the particular
information from their broad data base."
"So they said, 'we'll give you all the data,' " Secretary Snow said.
News of the program's existence renewed concerns about civil liberties first
raised last year when The Times reported on another secret program, conducted by
the National Security Agency, involving eavesdropping on telephone
communications without court warrants.
Both disclosures prompted complaints to the administration from members of
Congress, who are calling for more oversight, and from advocates for civil
liberties.
"I am very concerned that the Bush Administration may be once again violating
the Constitutional rights of innocent Americans, as part of another secret
program created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11th attacks," Representative Ed
Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who has made privacy a signature issue, said in
a statement.
The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Anthony D. Romero,
condemned the program, calling it "another example of the Bush administration's
abuse of power."
But Mr. Snow, the White House press secretary, said Americans by and large
supported the eavesdropping program.
"You can go ahead and look at your own polling, and you will find that Americans
— if somebody says, 'Do you want a program that listens in on people who have
been identified as al Qaeda terrorists?' — the answer would be, 'Yes, I would
like to do that. I would like to find data on it.' "
The press secretary made his remarks during a lengthy morning briefing, during
which he at times grew uncharacteristically testy. At one point, he
accused news organizations like CNN, The New York Times and The Los Angeles
Times of collecting personal data from visitors to their web sites without
disclosing it. At another, he grew exasperated when Helen Thomas, a
longtime White House correspondent, interrupted him, and told her to "stop
heckling and let me conduct the press conference."
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