Bush slams leak of terror financing info - Yahoo! News: "Bush slams leak of terror financing info By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
40 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - President Bush said Monday it was 'disgraceful' that the news media had disclosed a secret CIA-Treasury program to track millions of financial records in search of terrorist suspects. The White House accused The New York Times of breaking a long tradition of keeping wartime secrets.
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'The fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror,' Bush said, leaning forward and jabbing his finger during a brief question-and-answer session with reporters in the Roosevelt Room.
The Times has defended its effort, saying publication has served America's public interest.
The newspaper, along with the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal, revealed last week that Treasury officials, beginning shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, had obtained access to an extensive international financial data base � the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift.
The New York Times late last year also disclosed that the National Security Agency had been conducting warrantless surveillance in the United States since 2002 of people with suspected al-Qaida ties.
'Some in the press, in particular The New York Times, have made the job of defending against further terrorist attacks more difficult by insisting on publishing detailed information about vital national security programs,' Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech at a political fundraising luncheon in Grand Island, Neb.
'The New York Times has now twice � two separate occasions � disc"