Left hand column of the WSJ has a good article on trying to follow the money trail, banks, etc.
Wanted criminals (Almidhar and Alhazmi!!) used their credit cards to buy airplane tickets; they were wanted by the INS and the FBI, only VISA knew where to find them.
Not to beat a dead horse here but my Travel Identification Card, TIC, with all its smart information, could be just the item required by banks, money transfer agents etc. to require when a person comes in to send or receive money. Harmless, but it could provide the vital trace on loot which flies under the normal banking radar.
The article (could someone access it and post it here) is hilariously in a tragicomic sense. Banks send their money laundering notices, BY US MAIL, to Detroit, which are then sent (on paper) to Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota, where they data feed it by hand onto magnetic tape which is then sent back to Detroit. Elapsed time: 9 days (I do believe that's 9 days AT BEST).
Apparently Mohammed Atta did a $100K transfer but Treasury Department had the report in its own files when Atta flew the jet into the WTC.
I guess I'm not worried about Big Brother watching; I'm more worried about Big Brother being asleep at the switch.
Kb |
