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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."
I like how this post that ridicules and mocks Bush's Texas accent is modded "insightful". There there millions of people that talk in the same manner and have the same twang as he does, and it's and insult to use that as a form of mockery.
It's a typical snobby and I would argue downright racist comment here. Making fun of someone's accent is not funny or insightful and for the moderators to mod it as such shows the kind of insensitivities that Bush haters have. Would a post that mocks Asians or Black or Mexican accents be insightful? No I didn't think so.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
'cause only faggots and terrorists think there's anything wrong in America other than TOO MUCH KICK-ASS FREEDOM!!!
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Damn, people have frigging short memories. Go back to Clinton and his coverups of the White House travel office and the death of Mr Foster, the Rose Law firm records, Whitewater, failing to secure Osama when he was offered, the Chinese Communists and convicted felons being on his big donor list, selling the Lincoln bedroom to big donors. the non-prosecution of Sandy "Burglar" for taking classified documents from the National Archives (clinton justice dept appointees would not file charges even with GWB in power), allowing sensitive technology to be exported to China (so it can be sold to anyone with cash). Go back to Reagan and Iran-Contra, go back to Nixon and Watergate, go back to Kennedy and Bay of Pigs, LBJ and "no troops in Vietnam". It's part and parcel of Presidential Politics.
Terrorists need money (you think the arms dealers GIVE away weapons because they LIKE the "cause"??) and it had been pre-9/11 that they were using the International banking system to move money from one "business" or "Charity" to another. They looked like legit transactions until you traced the wires back. So, IMHO, the monitoring of International Banking is part of protecting National Security.
These Governments that are "allowing" this to happen are playing the system. If the CIA/NSA finds some nasty info on a EU citizen they'll turn it over to the authorities to prosecute. This gets around the EU laws of privacy as the EU authority didn't violate anything, they were acting on a "tip" that was given to them by someone not bound by the same rules. So, you see it benefits the EU Governments as well but they can't say that in public as they'd pay hell. So they push out info to inflame public opinion about the "nasty Americans" looking at your bank data, when behind your back they are happy the US is doing so. All politicians, regardless of EU, USA or other are two faced. It's their nature.
The fact that Fox News is so popular is indicative that the mainstream (non-Fox) media is, in fact, not as conservative as the majority of viewers want(ed) it to be.
No, it's because Fox created it's own pond where it could be the big fish. Non-fascist viewers vastly outnumber fascist viewers, but they are spread across CNN, MSNBC and broadcast stations. However, if you want fascist fact-free news, Fox is the way to go.
Other stations occasionally try and woo Fox viewers with wingnuts like Glenn Beck, who tries to make up for all the nice Mormons in this country by being the biggest asshole on the planet, but are just wasting their time. It's like the DLC pushing Democrats to basically be Bud Light Republicans: why go Light when you can get the real thing?
You whine about this. Then when the US fails to stop terrorism, you whine about that and ask why the govenment haven't done more to catch these people.
/. post a while ago when people were shocked and horrified when a Tor server was seized.
The innocent have nothing to fear, and if you accounts are in order, then why should it bother you if they're glanced at by a security official.
Its like a
I ask you, what are you doing that merits total anonymity? Forgive my cynicism, but could it be something illegal?
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.