the information is classified
Is the mere fact that the program exists classified?
Because I recall reading shortly after 9/11 that US banks and international banks were cooperating in helping trace money that was being used by and for terrorists and sympathizers.
Further, there have been prosecutions of persons using this information, as well as seizures, which have been reported.
Now, I don't really know whether the information used was derived from this specific program or others, but the fact that the US and other countries have been cooperating in sharing bank records has been widely reported and well known for years.
Further, the administration has developed a pattern of unilateral decision making as to the legality of things that don't appear to others to be legal. Nobody's above the law, so saying that "it's classified" may just be tail-covering by trying to keep illegal acts secret.
This has happened in the past, that Presidents kept illegal acts secret, as you know.
Finally, what is and what is not legal is sometimes a matter of interpretation. It's important to the country as a whole that the legality of these acts gets sorted out. Bush got a free pass after 9/11 but that was almost 5 years ago.
I think the most objectionable part of this and the phone record surveillance and the internet communication surveillance so forth is the use of data mining, which means that everybody's subject to surveillance, you, me, and everybody we know. Those are the tactics of police states.
And surely after all the years you spent working for the government, you aren't going to argue that confidential information isn't misused by irresponsible employees. |
