politics

Press Sheds Light on Another Secret Program

A roundup of how four major newspapers covered today's national security blockbuster.
June 23, 2006

Last night, the nation’s newspapers reported the existence of a secret program run by the CIA and the Treasury Department, designed to track suspected terrorist financing through unprecedented access to a vast database of international financial records.

Under the program, which began shortly after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials have examined financial records “from the nerve center of the global banking industry,” a Belgian cooperative known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, for short, which, as the New York Times reported, “routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions.”

The news broke almost simultaneously on the Web sites of New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal. Both Times papers reported that they were asked to keep the program secret but decided to publish, citing the public interest.

So, who gets the award for getting the scoop?

At 3,900 words, the New York Times‘ front-page story today is the longest and most dense of the three, but also the most comprehensive and authoritative. The paper notes that it relied on interviews with “[n]early 20 current and former government officials and industry executives” and extensive on-the-record information from Stuart Levey, the undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

While counterterrorism officials have “examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States,” reported the Times, government officials say the program is limited “to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.” “The records mostly involve wire transfers” and other international transactions, while most routine, domestic financial transactions “are not in the database.”

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“Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia,” reported the Times‘ Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, the duo that recently won a Pulitzer for disclosing the government’s warrantless domestic eavesdropping program. (Barclay Walsh also contributed.)

Levey told the Times yesterday that the program “has provided us with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use of our authorities.”

But while “multiple safeguards have been imposed to protect against any unwarranted searches of Americans’ records,” the program, said the Times, “is a significant departure from typical practice in how the government acquires Americans’ financial records. Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative.”

“The program is separate from the National Security Agency’s efforts to eavesdrop without warrants and collect domestic phone records,” the Times noted, “[b]ut all the programs grew out of the Bush administration’s desire to exploit technological tools to prevent another terrorist strike, and all reflect attempts to break down longstanding legal or institutional barriers to the government’s access to private information about Americans and others inside the United States.”

The Times also notes that administration officials asked the paper not to publish the story, “saying that disclosure of the Swift program could jeopardize its effectiveness,” and that Levey agreed to talk after he was told that the newspaper intended to publish. After closely considering the administration’s arguments, said Times executive editor Bill Keller, “We remain convinced that the administration’s extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest.”

At 3,000 words, the Los Angeles Timesaccount is more concisely written and easier to digest.

The paper’s piece — which also features an interview with Levey and cites discussions with more than a dozen anonymous U.S. officials — provides some additional important details about the program. For one, it notes that the program is audited by Booz Allen Hamilton (the New York Times refers only to an “outside auditing firm”). The Los Angeles Times included that “Treasury issues a new subpoena once a month,” that the program was initially closely guarded but “has recently become known to a wider circle” of government officials and outside banking executives and experts, and that the program’s value “has been in tracking lower- and mid-level terrorist operatives and financiers who believe they have not been detected,” with only marginal success against Al Qaeda.

The story also includes some colorful, meaty quotes. One former counterterrorism official acknowledged the government program “is certainly not going to sit well in the world marketplace,” saying that “It could very likely undermine the integrity of SWIFT.” Later on, describing SWIFT’s state-of-the-art security, a former SWIFT executive called it “arguably the most secure network on the planet”: “This thing is locked down like Fort Knox.”

While the New York Times was able to point to a few specific examples of the program’s success, the Los Angeles Times could not. It did, however, conclude by quoting Lee Hamilton — former 9/11 Commission co-chair who has been briefed on the program — saying this: “I still cannot point to specific successes of our efforts here on terrorist financing.”

In contrast, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post‘s front-page stories today were much shorter, although each added to the overall picture. The Journal reported that the program “has been highly successful both in leading to the apprehension of terrorism suspects and in thwarting terrorist operations,” yielding “useful information” about last July’s London subway bombings, and that “US officials agreed to discuss the program after concluding that knowledge of its existence was emerging and public disclosure was inevitable.” The Post story, meanwhile, focused on the cumulative effect of the Treasury and NSA programs, and quoted extensively from yet another interview with Levey.

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is irked that the Treasury program has now been made public, with White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino last night lashing out at one of the papers by name: “The president is concerned that once again the New York Times has chosen to expose a classified program that is working to protect our citizens.”

The Times not only earned the ire of the White House, it also earns our award for the best coverage of the program. And all of the papers earn a tip of our hat for reporting on a program in the face of direct pressure from the administration.

Edward B. Colby was a writer at CJR Daily.