I pose a question at the bottom, please read this and let us know what you think...thanks.
By Emily Flitter and Stella Dawson and Mark Hosenball
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON |
Wed
Mar 13, 2013 2:31pm EDT
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
The Obama
administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to
a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others
who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by
Reuters.
The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to
spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together
financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which
legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to
trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.
Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law
to file reports of "suspicious customer activity," such as large money transfers
or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury's Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the database.
However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the
National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for
information to FinCEN.
The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw
financial data than they have ever had before, helping them look for patterns
that could reveal attack plots or criminal schemes.
The planning document, dated March 4, shows that the proposal is still in its
early stages of development, and it is not known when implementation might
begin.
Financial institutions file more than 15 million "suspicious activity
reports" every year, according to Treasury.
Banks, for instance, are required to report
all personal cash transactions exceeding $10,000, as well as suspected incidents
of money laundering, loan fraud, computer hacking or counterfeiting.
"For these reports to be of value in detecting money laundering, they must be
accessible to law enforcement, counter-terrorism agencies, financial regulators,
and the intelligence community," said the Treasury planning document.
A Treasury spokesperson said U.S. law permits FinCEN to share information
with intelligence agencies to help detect and thwart threats to national
security, provided they adhere to safeguards outlined in the Bank Secrecy Act.
"Law enforcement and intelligence community members with access to this
information are bound by these safeguards," the spokesperson said in a
statement.
Some privacy watchdogs expressed concern about the plan when Reuters outlined
it to them.
A move like the FinCEN proposal "raises concerns as to whether people could
find their information in a file as a potential terrorist suspect without having
the appropriate predicate for that and find themselves potentially falsely
accused," said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel for the Rule of Law
Program at the Constitution Project, a non-profit watchdog group.
Despite these concerns, legal experts emphasize that this sharing of data is
permissible under U.S. law. Specifically, banks' suspicious activity reporting
requirements are dictated by a combination of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA
PATRIOT Act, which offer some privacy safeguards.
National security experts also maintain that a robust system for sharing
criminal, financial and intelligence data among agencies will improve their
ability to identify those who plan attacks on the United States.
"It's a war on money, war on corruption, on politically exposed persons,
anti-money laundering, organized crime," said Amit Kumar, who advised the
United Nations on Taliban sanctions and is
a fellow at the Democratic think tank Center for National Policy.
SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY
The Treasury document outlines a proposal to link the FinCEN database with a
computer network used by U.S. defense and law enforcement agencies to share
classified information called the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications
System.
The plan calls for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence - set
up after 9/11 to foster greater collaboration among intelligence agencies - to
work with Treasury. The Director of National Intelligence declined to
comment.
More than 25,000 financial firms - including banks, securities dealers,
casinos, and money and wire transfer
agencies - routinely file "suspicious activity reports" to FinCEN. The
requirements for filing are so strict that banks often over-report, so they
cannot be accused of failing to disclose activity that later proves
questionable. This over-reporting raises the possibility that the financial
details of ordinary citizens could wind up in the hands of spy
agencies.
Stephen Vladeck, a professor at American University's Washington College of
Law, said privacy advocates have already been pushing back against the increased
data-sharing activities between government agencies that followed the September
11 attacks.
"One of the real pushes from the civil liberties community has been to move
away from collection restrictions on the front end and put more limits on what
the government can do once it has the information," he said. (end of article)
Z: The friend who sent me this information was pretty upset about it. It doesn't bother me so much. I know it reeks of privacy breaches, but really? Don't we need to see if people are moving money around in ways that can badly affect us? I will say I think that $10,000 is a very low amount to have banks reporting all transactions above that, but... DOES THIS BOTHER YOU TERRIBLY MUCH? I'm curious.
thanks...
z
I wish you a very Happy Easter with all the commercial fun thrown in! 
