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US special services to be empowered to control banking operations inside the country.

March 16, 2013   ·   0 Comments

© Photo: SXC.hu

US special services to be empowered to control banking operations inside the country. The system has all the data to take you out on individual level. When is it going to end?

US citizens have new reasons to accuse the government of spying following the publication of a bill prepared by the Obama administration that empowers special services to control information about banking operations inside the US. While the authorities are set on combating terrorism, human rights campaigners are concerned about the government spying on its own citizens.

The highly sensitive information that leaked into the press included a draft plan under which all special services will be provided with access to the data base that contains bank account details and reports about transactions in American credit institutions. According to representatives of the US administration, such a measure is needed to track down terrorist and criminal groups through analyzing information coming from different sources. At present, banks and 25,000 firms like casinos and payment and money transfer outlets, pass data on all suspicious transactionis to the FinCEN financial crimes enforcement network. Operations that evoke suspicion include money transfers involving sums over $10,000 and account transactions. Every year FinCEN receives about 15 million reports about dubious business deals. Only the FBI has free access to these files. Other special services, including the CIA and the National Security Agency, have to request information on the transaction they are interested in.

The White House’s initiative has run into opposition from human rights groups which accuse special services of having access to an excessively huge number of private files without it. Human rights activists say the criteria for starting surveillance are unclear. Sharon Bradford Franklin, a senior counsel for the Rule of Law Program at the Constitution Project, says millions of Americans could become suspects in assisting terrorism for absolutely no reason.

So far, this project is no more than a project and it’s unclear when it will get off the ground. However, special services are powerful enough to push it through the government and Congress without problem.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_16/US-special-services-empowered-to-control-banking-operations-inside-the-country/

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