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July 05, 2006
Brits and the EU, Terrorism is a Real And Present Threat
by Tina Grazier
Over at COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG, http://counterterrorismblog.org/ Two quotes from this article, “Europeans More Puzzled than Concerned by SWIFT Monitoring Revelations� by Victor Comras. “European reaction to the New York Times revelations concerning US monitoring ofswift has been quite muted. There has been no public outcry…�
“…EU Commission also indicated that the arrangements between SWIFT and the US government did not violate any law. EU Data Protection regulations do not extend to data transfers from private entities. EU officials also indicated that there was a specific exemption for data transfers related to national security.�
And also from the site, COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG, a link to Independent Online Addition
http://www.independent.co.uk/ quotes from two separate articles:
“Terror activity is growing, police say� By Terry Kirby, Chief Reporter
“…police had disrupted "three or four" potential plots and were involved in more than 70 separate investigations. More than 60 individuals are awaiting trial. ‘This is unprecedented and the flow of new cases shows no sign of abating - if anything it is accelerating,'’ Peter Clarke, the head of counter terrorism for the Metropolitan Police,
said� “…Some of the intelligence examined by police was ‘very sinister’�
“M15 conducts secret inquiry into 8,000 al-Qai’ida ‘sympsthisers’� by Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent
“Up to 8,000 suspected al-Qa'ida sympathisers are being investigated by MI5 and the police in an operation to identify future terrorists…Undercover officers are gathering information from all over the country, including at colleges, mosques and internet websites where extremists may try to "groom" or radicalize those sympathetic to the aims of al-Qa'ida.�
GET SERIOUS NYT-THEY AREN’T GOING AWAY
Posted by Post Scripts at July 5, 2006 01:10 PM
Comments
Next up, we'll see NYT connect Swift Boat veterans to this "outrage".
"Bush uses SWIFT financial tracking to spy on Kerry Swift boat supporters".
Yeah, thats the ticket.
Posted by: toodles at July 5, 2006 03:53 PM
Jack-
I find the EU stance not all that surprising. Any data on how many EU nations are doing the same type of Terrorist funding financial tracking that we are doing here in the US?
Of course if those programs are secret and haven't been exposed by the Times I guess we wouldn't know about it.
I'm betting Britain, Germany and Italy are doing something similar. There are probably other countries doing the exact same thing we are as it only makes sense to do so. Its simple due diligence in the war on terror to see if money is being sent in to fund these cells.
Posted by: Anthony Watts at July 5, 2006 08:46 PM
Toodles...love your handle...are you worried yet?
Posted by: Tina at July 5, 2006 09:04 PM