[privacy] Patriot Act Also Reveals Domestic Financial Data

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Via Newsweek.

[snip]

Over the last four years, U.S. law enforcement agencies have gained
access to over 28,000 financial records inside the United States under
a little known provision of the USA Patriot Act that parallels the
secret international bank data program disclosed by news organizations
last week, Treasury Department records show.

The disclosure of the overseas program—under which Treasury Department
officials have tapped into the records of a vast Belgian-based
international financial database called Swift (Society for Worldwide
Interbank Financial Telecommunications)—has kicked up a storm of
controversy. Some critics have decried the program as another example
of the administration's invasion of privacy in the name of the war on
terror. At the same time, President Bush today condemned as
"disgraceful" the disclosure of the operation, which intended to help
the government track overseas money movements of suspected terrorists.
"For people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it,
does great harm to the United States of America,” Bush told reporters
in Washington.

But the international program is only one part of a much broader, if
little publicized, Treasury Department effort to probe suspect
financial records—including thousands of bank accounts, wire transfers
and other transactions involving individuals, companies and nonprofit
organizations inside the United States.

Under a section of the USA Patriot Act passed by Congress in the
aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, Treasury officials were
given new powers to direct U.S. banks and other financial institutions
to search their records for accounts or transactions involving any
individuals or groups who come under scrutiny during investigations of
terrorism and money laundering cases. 

[snip]

More here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13561813/site/newsweek/

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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