Thanking the NYT for its find job on informing us.

Thanking the NYT for its find job on informing us.
YellowStars blog
Posted by ESLaPorte
29 June 2006
http://yellow-stars.com/blog/2006/06..._its_find.html

The Neo-con fascists' mouthpieces in American talk radio - and a few
American legislators - want to prosecute - and actually imprison - the
people at the New York Times (NYT). The main claim is that the NYT, in
exposing the Swift program, is "costing the lives of soldiers." The Neo-con
fascists in talk radio want to, just as the current American administration,
want to squash "unauthorized speech" through criminal prosecutions. The
Neo-con fascists in talk radio are treating the authors of the article
(there are three), as well as the NYT as if they are criminals. The other,
and more ominous, is the simplistic notion that this program is "being used
to catch terrorists. ' "

The people at the NYT are not criminals, but concerned with the direction
that America is traveling in.Last year, the NYT exposed the warrantless
surveillance of Americans. Now, it was, in the view of many, a patriotic
duty that the NYT has done in exposing the over-reaching powers of the
Caesar Bush. In a most defiant article called "Patriotism and the Press" the
NYT stated that the wiretapping program "has been under way for years with
no restrictions except those that the executive branch imposes on itself. It
has created powerful new tools of surveillance and refused.to use normal
procedures that would acknowledge that either Congress or the courts have an
oversight role." The response of the NYT was inspiring in its "Patriotism
and the Press" response to the alarm of Caesar Bush.

The truth is that the functioning of a healthy democracy is a free and
vigorous press. I am not only glad that NYT published and exposed this
story, but we should encourage even more exposure of this kind of tyrannical
behavior by the American government. As I wrote in the past, there is no set
definition of what are "terrorists" and the idea that government has to
power to set definitions, such as "terrorists," should be studied and
criticized in a free society. It does not take much for security agents to
redefine who and what are "threats," "dangerous people," including
"terrorists." Already, those people and groups that oppose the actions of
the American government are being labeled as "aiding the terrorists" in this
open-ended "war on terrorism."

Now- the "offending" article, "Bank data sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block
Terror" (NYT, 23 June '06), starts out with some of the concerns about this
kind of behavior by the American government. A main theme is that the
American Congress has lost control and over-sight and the judiciary is
out-to-lunch or even in favor of still more assault on our rights. As I have
written before, "constitutional rights" in America can be redefined and
watered down to nothing by the US Supreme Court. Never fear, the Europeans
are responding to this data transfer nonsense again - to the positive
protection of mainly European citizens' rights.

The Swift cooperative of banks is located in Belgium, a fact that I find
disgraceful. Well, never fear, the Belgium government has announced that it
will investigate Swift to see if data could be asked for by a U.S. civil
servant without authorization of a Belgian judge. The Swift has offices in
the U.S. too and the law is different here, but in Belgium a warrant must be
issued by a Belgian judge to obtain such data transfers. Now the fact that a
Belgian judge must issue a warrant as opposed to the free-reign of U.S.
officials tell something important: There is more protection of citizens'
rights in Belgium that in the United States. It is hoped that the European
Union can move and tighten up their data transfer laws and create bodies of
regulation.

Once again, let us all thank the leakers! It is their place to publish what
is in "the public interest" and this is something that we should know. It
demonstrates what I have suspected all along about another difference
between Europe and America. There is more freedom and protection of privacy
rights of citizens. This situation also shows that Europe must redefine its
relationship with America, or probably limit the contact with America.
Europe must now respond in the affirmative to protect the rights of its
citizens, otherwise, Europe will be dragged down to the American gutter!
Lastly, the NYT should be given a prize for its investigative reporting!


New York Times. "Patriotism and the Press." 28 June 2006.

New York Times. (authors withheld) "Bank data sifted in Secret by U.S. to
Block Terror." 23 June 2006

EUobserver. "Belgium to Probe US Monitoring of International Money
Transfer." 27 June 2006.