U.S. Treasury Defends Secret Surveillance Program

The U.S. Treasury feels like the secret surveillance program carried out clandestinely by the current administration isn’t such a bad thing. In fact, we’ll let them say so in their own words: the program is “government at its best.”

John Snow, Bush-nominated former U.S. Treasury Secretary, defended the program in a Reuters article.

In fact, the program may have continued to be hidden, had not those meddling kids at the New York Times not laid the program out in detail on Friday, forcing the Treasury to confirm it while complaining about the revelation.

“As part of our efforts to track the funds of terrorists, we are confirming that we have subpoenaed records on terrorist-related transactions from SWIFT,” Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey told a hastily called news conference.

“The legal basis for this subpoena is routine and absolutely clear,” he added. Levey said it was “a grave loss” that the surveillance program had been revealed but indicated that it will continue.

“I think that this program still…has the potential to still be powerful,” Levey said.

Privacy watchdogs and Democrats have blasted the program as a threat to American’s privacy. While defenders point to the fact that the program was only tracking suspicious transactions between suspected terrorists, counter arguments point out the fact that the definitions used to determine who is a “suspect” and who isn’t are weak at best.

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