EU May Allow US To Keep Snooping On European Bank Data

zaphod2 alerts us to a storm brewing in Europe over access by US intelligence agencies to EU banking data. There is considerable opposition in Europe to extending this access. The submitter adds, "I wonder how long it takes until gambling, online games, or non-RIAA-approved music shops are considered supporters of terrorism." "US anti-terror officials want to be able to continue examining Europeans' financial transactions, and it appears likely that the European Union is going to comply. ... The US has been examining transactions handled by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions (SWIFT) since the 9/11 attacks... However, SWIFT, which is located in Belgium, is planning to move its servers and database — which is currently located in the US — to Europe. With data privacy laws far stricter in Europe, the US would then need permission from the EU before it could gain access to this sensitive information."

Comments

this will stop

[circletimessquare]

just as soon as all of the "great thinkers" in this thread (riaa... really? torture? totalitarianism? do you know what these words actually mean?) figure out a way to trace terrorist funding WITHOUT this kind of snooping

oh right, terrorist funding doesn't exist, its a myth. its made up by neocons for mind control

zzz

the crusades are responsible for what?

[circletimessquare]

the crusades happened how many centuries ago?

we have to learn from history, not be trapped by history. history should teach you, not lock you in mindless recrimination

you are using the same idiotic logic that keeps the balkans buried in blood feuds going back for millenia. no, that does not work for explaining or condoning human behavior

the only way you assign accountability and responsibility is: if you do it, you're responsible. if your hands pulled a trigger that killed someone, who is responsible? you are. beginning and ending of responsibility. any other variation on that line of thinking is just "the devil made me do it": fabricated bullshit in an attempt to shift responsibility to vague hot button topics

i don't understand how you think

[circletimessquare]

yes, the usa gave bin laden stinger missiles to fight the soviets in the 1980s

in what fantasy world does that mean the usa is responsible for anything bin laden does... even in the 1980s?

here's my wacky perception of the world: what bin laden does is the responsibility of bin laden

if i gave you a gun, and you take that gun and you shoot your girlfriend, am i now responsible for you shooting your girlfriend?

or to make the analogy even wackier: i gave you a gun in 1980. in 2001, you use that gun to shoot your girlfriend. so i'm responsible? that's exactly how you wish to portray how things work with who is responsible for what al qaeda does

you're entire perception of how accountability and responsibility works in the real world is completely... retarded

what?

[circletimessquare]

"They're not trying to reign down destruction on our heads because of our decadent Western ways"

no, that is exactly what they say, and what they desire to do. read their rants: the west is immoral and evil because it is nonislamic, and so it needs to be destroyed. al qaeda is an offensive organization, not a defensive one. it is pointed as much at christian and jewish communities in the middle east that have been there longer than islam itself as it is at the west. it is pointed at muslims not suitably pious enough in their eyes (not wearing a beard, women going to school, etc.). it is pointed at shiites, because simply being a shia is evil. it is also pointed at all foreign influences, from the most benign and well-meaning (un missions, charity workers, tourists, etc.) to the outright imperialistic (britain, usa, etc.)

and you wish to say what they do is simply fight imperialism. this is a tiny part of their motivation. their real motivation is simple xenophobia and intolerance: god gives you the right to kill anyone who is not a pious sunni. if imperialism never existed in the world, if the europeans, ottomans, americans, etc., never sent a single troop into the middle east, they would still be perfectly valid targets for murdering, since they aren't pious shiites. al qaeda is an offensive militant expansive organization. you look at imperialism and see a violent intrusive unjustifiable force into foreign cultures: that's exactly what al qaeda is!

"I was just trying to point out that in this situation, as in so many other things, there's no clearly defined good or evil."

there is no better definition on this planet than something like al qaeda. can you define evil in a better way than an organization which feels perfectly justified in killing thousands of innocents for religious reasons? don't take my word for it, take the word of any moderate muslim. the biggest victims of al qaeda are fellow muslims, because they are not pure enough