Disgraceful

On Monday, President Bush said that it was "disgraceful" for The New York Times to have revealed government surveillance of international banking transactions through the SWIFT program (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communications--don't ask me why that isn't SWIFC, except that SWIFT sounds better). Sen Jim Bunning of Kentucky called the disclosure treason and Peter King, Republican of New York and chair of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the Attorney-General to consider prosecuting The Times.

Oops!

Turns out that government statements, including an executive order that W signed in 2001, have made no secret of efforts to track terrorist finances. As The Boston Globe reports, a former White House counter-terrorism official noted that there had been prior public references to the SWIFT program, and the American diplomat who oversaw efforts to track terrorists' financial transactions through the UN said that the surveillance was "common knowledge."

Once again, the administration and its congressional allies refuse to let truth get in the way of a good story.

(Interesting journalistic sidelight: Today's Times has a lead editorial on the controversy. It makes a passing reference to a UN report on surveilling terrorist finances, but none to The Globe's disclosures--even though The Times owns The Globe. The Times' editorial states that there is a "large wall" between the news and opinion parts of its operation (did it mean a high wall?); apparently, there's a wall between its publications as well.)