a reports view Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank Transfers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Brock N. Meeks" <bmeeks () cox net>
Date: June 23, 2006 3:37:33 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank  
Transfers

It seems to me that the government is becoming as lazy as the field of
journalism by depending far too much on computer access and databases  
than
good ol' shoe leather investigation.

The overwhelming number of journalists in this town (DC) sit on their
collective ass and do nothing harder than punch in a complex search  
phrase
into Google or a couple other search engines, make a few phone calls and
watch C-Span or webcasts.  It's the reporters that are out "doing it  
the old
way" meeting with sources face to face, going tracking down  
information on
foot either up on the Hill or meeting with staffers and "downloading"  
that
unreleased GAO report (from the staffer's hands into their briefcase)  
that
are getting the scoops (except the guys at the Wall St. Journal who just
have to make sure their ass is in the chair when their "scoop" comes  
in on a
private line, but I digress...)

And today's government investigators are no different, thinking up all
manner of new technologies to "catch the bad guys" when they should have
their feet on the ground nosing around.

Case in point: the bust in Miami that broke up the terror plot.  The FBI
infiltrated the group... INFILTRATED the group.

And I remember 'back in the day' when we were all fighting Louie  
Freeh and
his "let's end free encryption" campaign.  During those years we came to
find that the FBI had tremendous success in "cracking encrypted"  
files using
the tried and true method of PAYING OFF someone inside the  
organization that
had the crypto keys!

And as we've learned because of the intelligence disasters leading up to
9/11 and the Iraq invasion, the CIA sorely fumbled the ball by  
cutting way
back on human intelligence, so much so that they hardly had any "human
intelligence" inside Iraq or Saudi Arabia much less agents that actually
spoke Arabic.

I'd say it's time to stop putting so much emphasis on technology and get
back to spying the old fashioned way.



On 6/23/06 2:37 PM, "David Farber" <dave () farber net> wrote:

> From: Tom Goltz <tgoltz () QuietSoftware com>
> Date: June 23, 2006 2:18:19 PM EDT
> To: h_bray () globe com
> Cc: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] more on Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank
> Transfers
>
> At 11:37 AM 6/23/2006, Hiawatha Bray wrote:
> > Once again, a secret intelligence program during wartime has been
> > exposed.
> >
> > Do these guys actually want us to win?
>
> I think they do want us to win, but they also want us to still be a
> free and open society.
>
> The issue of the SWIFT transaction database goes straight to the core
> of the privacy debate.  Should the government have the right to
> obtain our most personal information at will?  If it does, who is
> going to provide the oversight of the government to ensure that
> access is not mis-used or abused?



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