The New York Times that Bank Data Secretly Reviewed by U.S. to Fight Terror. "The program [is] run out of the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the Treasury Department". No Congressional or Judicial oversight is mentioned. Of course it's limited to international transactions. Just like those phone calls, remember them? The Times says "Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database" which leaves the door open that some are.
"Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift." Swift is based in Brussels and stands for "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication".
Some members of Congress were briefed. When officials learned of the NYT story, they briefed more members. I guess those folks didn't need to know about it unless everyone knew about it. Yep just like the Warrantless Phone Surveillance program.
Look, I want the government to go after terrorists. Just don't break laws while doing it. Oh, and don't start unnecessary wars. Oh, and don't violate the Geneva Conventions. Oh, and don't piss off the rest of the world. Really is this too much to ask?
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