NY Times Elevates Terror Threat

Thank you New York Times.

The central argument we heard from officials at senior levels was that international bankers would stop cooperating, would resist, if this program saw the light of day. We don’t know what the banking consortium will do, but we found this argument puzzling. link to Keller’s letter

Consider your puzzle solved, Keller. This below would be the infamous SWIFT program the New York Times brought so much attention to by publishing classified information against objections by the Bush administrations, citing this probable result.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 1 (Agence France-Presse) — The European Central Bank must take action by April to stop the transfer of personal information from Swift, the bank-data consortium, to American authorities for use in antiterrorism investigations, a regulatory agency said Thursday.

The agency, the European Data Protection Supervisor, told the bank to come up with measures “to make its payment operations fully compliant with data-protection legislation,” urging it to “take appropriate measures as soon as possible.”

Under European Union rules, information on money transfers can be used only for banking purposes and not for other uses, like combating terrorism.

I’m sure the terrorists will be pleased to know Europe is so concerned for their rights.

Overheard on the Levin broadcast tonight, so I went looking for it. h/t NRO.