AP
The Obama administration is gearing up to allow U.S. spy agencies full access to an enormous database of Americans’ financial information in the name of fighting terrorism, Reuters reported Wednesday.
The plan, still in its early stages of development, would be “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,” according to Reuters.
It would give intelligence agencies such as the CIA and National Security Agency full access to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN. Financial institutions in the U.S. are required to report all “suspicious customer activity” to the network. The FBI already has access to it, but other agencies currently are required to make case-by-case requests for information.
“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,” read a Treasury Department planning document obtained by Reuters.
The proposal appears to be the latest step by the Obama administration in collect, storing or otherwise using Americans’ personal information in the name of national security. TheBlaze TV’s “For the Record” highlighted the rapid expansion in the NSA’s power to tap into the lives of U.S. citizens in its premiere episode Wednesday.
A Treasury spokesperson told Reuters that FinCEN is legally permitted to share information with intelligence agencies to aid in national security, and that all law enforcement and intelligence community members are bound by safeguards outlined in the Bank Secrecy Act.
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dontcensorme
Mar. 15, 2013 at 8:26amAs America parties on, the govt seeks to destroy and control. People talk but never fight back, so count on it all happening because Americans are too lazy to fight, they only complain.
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christianUSA
Mar. 15, 2013 at 6:57amHow did the teasury get all of US financal info? When and how long have they had this? By what right do they have it? What of our US rights to privacy from government intrution, as the British did before independence which is one of the reasons we wanted freedom independence? If they can at thier pleasure give any or all of our US private info to who ever they want in what sense do we have any Constitutional right of privacy? In what sense or reason does or is a warrant from a judge needed if they can and do have all your info? And if so in what way is there any balance of financial power by the courts? Why would or is it not posible with such info to distort presentation or time or context of such info to make it falsely seem a person guilty or pressure him or change or freeze records and accounts? If the teasury thus administration have unlimited financial power over both taxation and or citizen info why would they not have unlimited power control over them? How is this not unlimited finacial power thus near unlimited government power? Why do I feel like we are being financially and policed enslaved?
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ECOMCON
Mar. 15, 2013 at 2:50amCut up all your credit cards and use cash only from now on.
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Bonnieblue2A
Mar. 14, 2013 at 11:39pmWhy does the government have a massive database with American’s full financial data other than the icome reported to the IRS? Under what authority? Certainly not under the 4th Amendment.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
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FEMALL
Mar. 14, 2013 at 11:29pmDown to barter.
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