Your Freedom...It's Debatable
You've probably heard lately about how it's ok for the CIA and the Pentagon to take a look at your banking records. Well, unlike the warrantless wiretaps and peeking at our snail mail, this latest invasion of privacy isn't going totally unchecked. In fact experts of all stripes are now debating the legality of bank peeping.
Bank records not private in national security probes
By David G. Savage
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - Because a person's bank records are not deemed to be private in national-security investigations, U.S. government agencies -- including the Pentagon -- can request these records without a warrant, an expert in privacy law said Sunday.
The Defense Department and CIA are barred from conducting criminal investigations within the United States, but they have claimed the authority to gather intelligence to protect their operations.
Saturday, officials of both agencies confirmed that they had investigated suspicious individuals in the United States by asking for and obtaining bank records and credit information.
``This is almost surely legal. It is not like warrantless wiretapping'' on phone conversations, said James Dempsey, a privacy-law expert with the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington policy center that studies civil liberties in the digital age.
Uh, yeah. So take that! Looking at your bank records is not like warrantless wiretapping or nothing. I mean, come on people! (Incidently, the warrantless wiretap program still goes on unchallened to this day). But this is no where near as bad. I mean, warrantless wiretapping *bat fucking crazy*. But peeping at your bank records? Totally sane. In fact, as Cheney says, credit checks aren't illegal.
So there you have it. The Master of Freedom himself, Dick Cheney has spoken.
And BTW, all those ah hem, "suspicious" transactions you conduct? I got one word for you: CASH.
Comments
oh, yeah---
terrorists use credit cards and write checks to terrorist organizations so looking at their bank records makes PERFECT sense! uh huh.
meanwhile, of course this will capture high gov't attention.
while listening in to your conversations and reading your mail may not do so, snooping into your bank records might induce you to use credit cards less often -- and THAT might affect the economy! and people don't count. money does.
bank on it [pun not intended] Congress will challenge this one.
Posted by: two crows | January 15, 2007 07:18 AM
I very much doubt Congress will bother challenging "The Decider" about this. I mean, if they don't care about sending 20,000 more American soldiers off to their deaths enough to say "You can't do this" they aren't going to give a damn about this kind of thing.
About the only thing that will catch a terrorist entering America is a suspiciously high amount of cash on them. Why? Because terrorists and spies hate bank accounts, and why do they hate bank accounts? Because that's traceable and also freezable.
Result - Anyone actually involved in terrorism won't get caught by this, because they will stick to cash-only transactions, which can't be traced and sometimes result in not even an invoice being issued. Everyone else is, as the Scientologists might say, Fair Game.
Posted by: Whisperwolf | January 15, 2007 09:37 AM
Cheney just wants their miles.
Posted by: Frederick | January 15, 2007 04:36 PM
well, I do still think this could capture Congress' attention.
while they may not care about sending 21,500 mostly underprivileged kids to Iraq--I think they will, very much, care about something that may hurt the economy.
call me a cynic -- but I think that when money talks, rich people [which most of Congress are] listen.
Posted by: two crows | January 15, 2007 08:36 PM