Bush, Cheney threaten New York Times over exposure of surveillance programs

The Times reported June 21 on its web site and then in its June 22 print edition that the Department of the Treasury had secretly accumulated an enormous database on international financial transactions by obtaining access to the records of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, a Belgium-based clearinghouse for major banks and other financial institutions. Similar reports were published by the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal June 22, and then more generally throughout the US media.

Bush used a pro-war photo-op at the White House Monday to attack the media reports, saying, “the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We’re at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America.”

Cheney singled out the New York Times by name. “Some of the press, in particular the New York Times, have made the job of defending against further terrorist attacks more difficult by insisting on publishing detailed information about vital national security programs,” he told a Republican fundraising luncheon in Nebraska.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/time-j28.shtml