US May Invoke "State Secrets" To Stop Banking Suit

An anonymous reader sends us to the International Herald Tribune for news that the Bush administration is signaling that it plans to turn once again to a favorite legal tool, the 'state secrets' privilege. The administration wants to shut down a lawsuit brought against Swift, a huge Belgium banking cooperative that that the article calls the "nerve center of the global banking industry," after it was revealed that Swift secretly let the CIA comb through millions of private financial records. Quoting: "Two US banking customers sued Swift on invasion-of-privacy grounds. Many legal and financial analysts expected that the lawsuit would be thrown out because US banking privacy laws are considered much more lax than those in much of Europe. But to the surprise of many, a judge refused to throw out the lawsuit in a ruling in June."

Comments

clinton wasn't so different either

[nido]

All the administrations have been lockstep since Reagan fell to Tecumseh's Curse in 1981 (while he didn't die like all the other presidents elected at the decade mark, the rogue elements of his administration [led by V.P. George H.W. Bush] took over while he was recovering from the coup attempt).

George H.W. Bush had his speech about the New World Order and negotiated NAFTA. Clinton pushed NAFTA implementation through the congress.

I never really learned to read at teh government schools, and do much better listening to Chomsky's talks. Found Class War via bittorrent, and have borrowed a couple other cds from the local library. Definitely recommended listening.