American terrorist arrested in Miami

[Mike.Wazowski]

did I just hear the news blurb right!


http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2109053
quess so

 

[grinningghost]

Good shootin' boys.

 

[transparant]

Good job guys!

 

[RitaZ.]

My mom called me earlier to tell me something about that. I checked the local stations online, but there was nothing about it. I'll check the link. Thanks!

 

[transparant]

My mom called me earlier to tell me something about that. I checked the local stations online, but there was nothing about it. I'll check the link. Thanks!

CNN - Fox - MSNBC are all covering it right now.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

I think we should invade!

 

[RoyalCanadian]

They must have enterred the US through the northern border.

 

[eclectics]

Homegrown terrorists. It puts the border controversy in perspective doesn't it. We are not safe, even from our USA born and bred own.

 

[Charade]

It's so sad when we catch bad guys and some people feel the need to make ridiculous remarks.

 

[eclectics]

It's so sad when we catch bad guys and some people feel the need to make ridiculous remarks.

When you post under someone's last post without quoting someone else, it gives the impression you are talking about the poster above you, meaning me. Are you?

 

[Charade]

When you post under someone's last post without quoting someone else, it gives the impression you are talking about the poster above you, meaning me. Are you?

No, it was directed at Peter Pirate. Sorry.

 

[eclectics]

No, it was directed at Peter Pirate. Sorry.

Accepted. Do you think this group is as unorganized as the media says they are? Makes one wonder.

 

[Charade]

Accepted. Do you think this group is as unorganized as the media says they are? Makes one wonder.

What report says that?

 

[Free4Life11]

I am glad they caught them. I love Chicago, my favorite city in the country.

 

[eclectics]

What report says that?

The Homeland Security spokesman (I think that's who said it) I listened to insinuated that this group was unorganized and a al-Qaida wannabe. He didn't seem to think they were capable of doing what they were planning. Maybe more info will be forthcoming tomorrow.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

"ridiculous remarks"? ... Well, at least I've been chastized by someone who knows a lot about that subject. It was a joke, sorry you didn't like it.

It's great that dirtbags, scum, 'bad guys' are caught or killed wherever they are but this is just more proof that the war on terror is just hooey. It's a good catch phrase for the base and an excellent way to channel big money to big friends, but for any supposedly well educated American to actually believe that we can wage a successful war on terror is just scary to me. There have always been terrorists and always will be. This situation just points out that we'd be FAR better off worrying about what we're doing to protect Americans AT HOME rather than trying to be the worldwide policeman which will never in a million years succeed.

 

[transparant]

This situation just points out that we'd be FAR better off worrying about what we're doing to protect Americans AT HOME

Yeah we are. Except it might not work that well when the media decides to leak "CLASSIFIED" information.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has been quietly tracking people suspected of bankrolling terrorism through a secret program that gives the government access to a massive data base of international financial transactions.

Treasury Department officials said they used broad subpoenas to collect the financial records from an international system known as Swift. Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, called the subpoenas "a legal and proper use of our authorities."

"Since immediately following 9/11, the American government has taken every legal measure to prevent another attack on our country," Dana Perino, deputy White House press secretary, said. "One of the most important tools in the fight against terror is our ability to choke off funds for the terrorists."

Under the program, U.S. counterterrorism analysts could query Swift's financial data base looking for information on activities by suspected terrorists as part of specific terrorism investigations, a Treasury Department official said. They would do so by plugging in a name or names, the official said.

The program involved both the CIA and the Treasury Department.

Swift, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a cooperative based in Belgium that handles financial message traffic from 7,800 financial institutions in more than 200 countries.

The service, which routes more than 11 million messages each day, mostly captures information on wire transfers and other methods of moving money in and out of the United States. It doesn't execute these money transfers. The service generally doesn't detect private, individual transactions in the United States, such as withdrawals from an ATM or bank deposits. It is aimed mostly at international transfers.

The administration defended use of the program, saying it plays a vital role in its efforts to identify terrorist financiers.

"Our subpoena of terrorist-related records from Swift has provided us with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks," Levey said.

The existence of the program was first reported Thursday night on the Web sites of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal.

While confirming the newspaper reports, both Levey and Perino expressed concern that disclosure of the program could undermine efforts to track terrorism-related activities.
"We know the terrorists pay attention to our strategy to fight them, and now have another piece of the puzzle of how we are fighting them," Perino said.
The decision to publish was "a tough call; it was not a decision made lightly," said Doyle McManus, the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau chief.

Treasury Department officials spent 90 minutes Thursday meeting with the newspaper's reporters, stressing the legality of the program and urging the paper to not publish a story on the program, McManus said in a telephone interview.
Swift acknowledged that it complied with the government's subpoenas but said the government's requests were for limited slices of data.

The group said it negotiated with Treasury over the scope and oversight of the subpoenas.

"Through this process, Swift received significant protections and assurances as to the purpose, confidentiality, oversight and control of the limited sets of data produced under the subpoenas," Swift said in a statement. "Independent audit controls provide additional assurance that these protections are fully complied with."

Treasury Secretary John Snow suggested the program was limited in scope and wasn't an effort to snoop on law-abiding Americans.

"It is not a fishing expedition but rather a sharp harpoon aimed at the heart of terrorist activity," Snow said in a statement.

The financial messages routed over Swift's network carry information including the full name and address of both the sender and receiver, U.S. officials said.

Disclosure of the program follows intense controversy over President Bush's directive ordering the National Security Agency to monitor - without court approval - the calls and e-mails of Americans when one party is overseas and terrorism is suspected. That program, which also began shortly after 9/11, was disclosed by The New York Times.

The administration has not disclosed the terror-tracking program but has spoken publicly about its efforts to disrupt terror fundraising efforts.

The New York Times and Los Angeles Times quoted their editors as defending their decision to publish despite being asked by the Bush administration to withhold publication.Bill Keller, The New York Times' executive editor, said it considered the administration's arguments but in the end decided to publish. "We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use it may be, is a matter of public interest."

Dean Baquet, editor of the Los Angeles Times, said: "We weighed the government's arguments carefully, but in the end we determined that it was in the public interest to publish information about the extraordinary reach of this program."Some in Congress were briefed on the operations, including members of the House Intelligence Committee. Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., declined to comment.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had been briefed about the program and understood it had had "a direct role in keeping our country safe," said his spokeswoman, Amy Call.

I find it pathetic that these publications were among the most vocal in condemning the leak that Valerie Plame was a so-called "covert" agent?
Yet they freely publish information that is 100X more damaging to our country's efforts to fight terrorism (Or so called HOOEY)

 

[RoyalCanadian]

It's so sad when we catch bad guys and some people feel the need to make ridiculous remarks.

I certainly don't think my remarks were any more ridiculous than the continued false assertions by some US lawmakers that the 9/11 terrorists enterred the United States through Canada.

I'm glad US authorities rounded up these homegrown terrorist wannabes -- just as I'm glad Canadian authorities rounded up our own batch of homegrown terrorist wannabes.

 

[jgmklmhem]

I certainly don't think my remarks were any more ridiculous than the continued false assertions by some US lawmakers that the 9/11 terrorists enterred the United States through Canada.

I'm glad US authorities rounded up these homegrown terrorist wannabes -- just as I'm glad Canadian authorities rounded up our own batch of homegrown terrorist wannabes.

I haven't read that the 9-11 terrorists entered through Canada but the Millenium Bomber did...he was just stopped before he carried out his attack.

 

[cardaway]

Great news. Especially since there wasn't a large waste of soldiers lives this time.