US President George W. Bush on Monday sharply criticized the
disclosure of a secret program in which US anti-terrorism officials
monitor personal banking transactions.
Calling the disclosure "disgraceful," Bush said: "For people to
leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm
to the United States of America."
He made the remarks when talking with reporters in the White
House after meeting with groups that support US troops in Iraq.
"Congress was briefed, and what we did was fully authorized
under the law," Bush said.
"We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United
States of America," the president said, noting "what we were doing
was the right thing."
The New York Times reported Friday that under a secret
Bush administration program initiated weeks after the September 11
attacks, US counter terrorism officials have gained access to
financial records from a vast international database and examined
banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in
the US.
The program, run by the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen
by the Treasury Department, is limited to tracing transactions of
people suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda.
However, the report said US officials involved in the program
never seek court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific
transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for
millions of banking records.
The program was then confirmed by US Treasury Secretary John
Snow, who defended the secret monitoring as being legal and
justified.
(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2006)
