On the not-so-secretivest of secrets

Okay, so a Google search for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication turns up, as the very first hit, a Web site devoted entirely to SWIFT, produced by none other than SWIFT themselves.

Why does SWIFT hate America?

One has to wonder why the Belgium-based company would be so blatant and overt about their activities tracking terrorist financial activities. Bush's passionate condemnation of the New York and Los Angeles papers for publishing articles about the program certainly seems to indicate that it's super-duper-extra secret, that the papers in question have given aid and comfort to the terrorists by letting them know that the US government is tracking their financial transactions. And yet SWIFT is so bold as to discuss that very same classified program on its Web site.

And in the hateful language of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys, no less.

But it gets worse, people. This is from our very own president, on September 24, 2001:

"We're putting banks and financial institutions around the world on notice -- we will work with their governments, ask them to freeze or block terrorists' ability to access funds in foreign accounts."

Why does President Bush hate America?

What's even more, that same DefenseLINK article has a sidebar of 27 "individuals and organizations identified in President Bush's Sept. 24 executive order as terrorists, sympathizers or supporters whose financial holdings in the United States are subject to an immediate freeze." Way to protect our men and women in uniform, DefenseLINK.

So now, for those keeping score: Leaks that of classified information to the benefit of the government, to make them look good and tough and butch and stick it to their critics? Awesome. Leaks that the administration doesn't personally orchestrate themselves? Aiding and abetting terrorists.

Hope y'all are taking notes. It gets complicated.