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CIA Database Tracks All US Money Transfers
While hardly as dramatic as ongoing revelations of Big NSA Brother probing every aspect of Americans' lives, overnight the WSJ reported that in addition to the complete loss of privacy - which should now be taken for granted - the CIA has been added to the list of entities that scrutinize every online interaction, and is "building a vast database of international money transfers, including Western Union, that includes millions of Americans' financial and personal data, officials familiar with the program say." The program will be (and is) carried out under the same provision of the Patriot Act that enables the National Security Agency to collect nearly all American phone records. In other words, instead of being upfront that all the CIA, and administration, care about is tracking large flows of money that may have "evaded" taxation, and is traditionally used by expats to send modest amounts of money back to their host countries, what the CIA is instead focusing on is whether mom and pop are using Western Union to deposit $500 in Al-Qaeda's account in Afghanistan.
The WSJ explains as much:
The data is obtained from companies in bulk, then placed in a dedicated database. Then, court-ordered rules are applied to "minimize," or mask, the information about people in the U.S. unless that information is deemed to be of foreign-intelligence interest, a former U.S. official said.
A limited number of analysts are allowed to search the database with queries that meet court-approved standards. This is similar to the way NSA handles its phone-data program.
...
The CIA, as a foreign-intelligence agency, is barred from targeting Americans in its intelligence collection. But it can conduct domestic operations for foreign intelligence purposes. The CIA program is meant to fill what U.S. officials see as an important gap in their ability to track terrorist financing world-wide, current and former U.S. officials said.
The program serves as the latest example of blurred lines between foreign and domestic intelligence as technology globalizes many activities carried out by citizens and terrorists alike. The CIA program also demonstrates how other U.S. spy agencies, aside from the NSA, are using the same legal authority to collect data such as details of financial transactions.
Ah yes, "limited number." And since every single American is a potential sponsor of terrorism, it is only logical that this latest dragnet covers absolutely every single US citizen. And in the outlier case that the CIA also taps, investigates, records, and just happens to forward to the IRS, every single money transfer originating or terminating in the US, oh well.
The data collected by the CIA doesn't include any transactions that are solely domestic, and the majority of records collected are solely foreign, but they include those to and from the U.S., as well. In some cases, it does include data beyond basic financial records, such as U.S. Social Security numbers, which can be used to tie the financial activity to a specific person. That has raised concerns among some lawmakers who learned about the program this summer, according to officials briefed on the matter.
What is peculiar is that unlike wire transfers which are virtually unlimited in size, and scrutinized by all relevant, and irrelevant, authorities money transfers are for the most part tiny and anything that is of a more sizable amount, over $3000, is already subject to the microscope treatment:
Money transfer forms differ depending on location and type. But they ask for the names, addresses and telephone numbers of senders and receivers. Depending on the transfer, senders and receivers also may be asked to provide the date and place of their birth. In most locations in the U.S., people sending $1,000 or more must provide an ID such as a driver's license. People sending $3,000 or more must provide additional ID, such as a Social Security number or passport.
However, it appears the small transfer limit did not trouble Al-Qaeda:
The money-transfer program appears to have been inspired by details of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plot, in which the al Qaeda hijackers were able to move about $300,000 to U.S.-based bank accounts without arousing suspicion. In part, it was because the transactions were comparably small and fit the pattern of the remittances used by immigrants or foreign visitors to send money home.
Some of the transfers were between bank accounts, but some moved through person-to-person transfers. In 2000, Sept. 11 plot facilitator Ramzi Binalshibh made a series of transfers, totaling more than $10,000, from Germany to the U.S., where they were collected by hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi. Two transfers were through MoneyGram and two through Western Union.
And while hardly as dramatic in the grand scheme of things, the WSJ report shows just how much, or little, personal privacy hinges on one simple word:
That program was institutionalized by 2006 and continues under a controversial authority tucked into a part of the Patriot Act known as Section 215. That law permits the government to obtain "tangible things," including records, as long as the government shows it is reasonable to believe they are "relevant" to a terrorism investigation.
Under that provision, the U.S. government secretly interpreted the term "relevant" to permit collection of records on millions of people not necessarily under suspicion. That secret interpretation, used to justify the legality of the phone-records program, was brought to light in the wake of the revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The interpretation also was used by CIA as the legal underpinning of its bulk financial-records effort under the money-transfer program, officials said.
One doesn't need to clarify that just like with the NSA, the CIA is logging, recording and analyzing every single money transfer of even the most nominal amount. Which, quite simply, continues to build an architecture for the full tracing of all electronic monetary transactions in the US. Because once every flow of funds is logged at even the most micro level, the US will be able to not only regulate and supervise, but to implement any type of capital and fund flow controls it desires. Which it will in due course.
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Then surely they can find that $Trillion that the Pentagon lost?
Over.
This is good news! Maybe Obama will ask the CIA to help the Honorable Jon Corzine find the $1,200,000,000 of client money that disappeared?
Corzine stole gold, no? Possession really is 9/10ths of the law!
Has anyone gotten anything back from JPM (who took the stolen gold)?
***
Beginning Bitcoiner Bearing (BBB) is looking into this whole new other subject to quietly move "money" around. If we can get our suppliers overseas to accept BTC as payment for our bearings, well that is a good thing.
Seems like everyone at .gov wants all of our money data.
Oh, so we are supposed to believe them when they say they are following the rules?
Lol, pull the other one!
I see the US government and associated corporations (FED) as a greater threat to my family and progeny than ANYTHING else on earth.
At least I know what a late stage Roman felt like, which is nice.
pods
I had 300 bucks in my checking account and went to deposit my two weeks' pay of 2K. Motherfuckers at Smells Tardo tell me I can't cash it, because "I don't have enough money in my account." But BoA (issuer) can.
WHAT THE FUCK!
Dude, that's a serious WTF! Do you have an account with a maximum balance limit? Is it even a check (See Check21)?
woops, shouldn't have said 'deposit' at all in that sentence. Of course they want my deposit as their liability. They would not let me fully cash an employer paycheck - I could only get a 1000 in cash, with the rest needing to be deposited to my checking.
Fuck them.
Don't use banks. Use a credit union or something. They aren't much better but certainly have less fees.
Then one I use does anyways.
Dirty little secret is that there is so little cash on hand at those branches that it is tough for them to cash anything.
They will cut you a bank check, but not cash.
pods
That does seem to be the case. I inquired of a WF bank manager about removing large sums of cash and i was told I would have to give them two day notice. But the kicker is, the manager would have to call to get it approved!!!
BofA has been in serious trouble for years. Maybe, they've had trouble getting payment? Cash on hand should've been enough unless, someone ahead of you took it all.
Final stage of a dying empire. Financial controls never work in a nation's favor. Money is like water and wants to travel the path of least resistance. New financial capitals emerging all over the place and those who are dumb enough to comply with requests from the US are going to feel the same effects. They can't trap money but they will try and won't stop at nothing including confiscation.
If you're a suspect, you will potentially lose all your money - for the good of their nation.
Good comment walkure - The next step will be to impose exchange control restrictions on all citizens . It is frightful to watch this once great nation going down the tubes.
But the Blockchain records every transaction of a Bitcoin. All they have to do is tie you to an IP transaction with a Bitcoin that was used to purchase illicit goods and a prison cell awaits.
"all you have to do"
yeah good luck with that
They won't start with Tor encrypted SilkRoad traffic (low ROI), they'll simply cross-reference the blockchain IPs with Obamacare-dodgers and US residents with any substantial bank balances, and then they'll turn the list over to the IRS and the IRS will have grounds to start civil forfeiture procedures for tax fraud... Rinse, repeat of the FATCA playbook.
"Lawful" Redistribution of wealth from any ows/tea party niggler or joe-sixpack debt serf that does not comply with the dictats of the executive branch of the Fascist State with zero judicial or congressional oversight to protect the citizenry.
No accounting for Bitcoin currency exchange gains on your form 1040... No problem... Welcome to Section 8/Camp FEMA.
Speaking of that, I have a question or two on Bitcoin. I've been looking at localbitcoin.com (as people here said stay away from the big exchanges like Mt Gox) and any of the top sellers all use the big banks to do their transactions, TD, Scotia, RBC, BMO, etc...and their selling price is often times well above the spot. $30, $40 even $50 bucks higher. Buying offers are the same, well below spot at $375 to $400. Is this normal in the Bitcoin world?
Are the spreads always this wide and extreme? Or is it because of the volitility and wild frenzy and speculation going on?
But at least you'll get free health care with that prison cell.
Oregon http://rt.com/usa/oregon-man-bank-robbery-healthcare-126/
North Carolina http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/nc-man-allegedly-robs-bank-health-...
For any hardcore conservative republicans out there - - - do ya still think 'your guy' Bush was 'good' and you can't wait to 'throw the bastards out' in the next election ? After all he only helped get this latest version of 'the war on terryism' started. Do you think the Rs will end any of this ?
As the wonderful late George Carlin used to say -
"Its one big club . . . and you & me ain't in it."
Well I hope the CIA has a good frogman team cause if they want to trace my financial transaction, it's under 435ft of water on the bottom of a lake.
what lake would that be?
With all this talk of lost treasure, I made a small investment:
http://gizmodo.com/5986644/17-one+man-submarines-that-will-take-your-bre...
DEG I'd like to rent one of them thar contraptions so I can go down and check my bank balance.
Sometimes I get this horrible sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see a bit of the evidence of what is happening to America.
Anyone paying attention knew to expect just exactly this story to emerge eventually. And here we are.
Anyway yeah, this red-team/blue team stuff just makes me even more sick because its further evidence of how intractable the problem is.
Who knows how much futher "hard assets" will fall before something snaps... Seems like we are all tied to this thing now and there is no way out.
I'm not saying this is true but I did read somewhere that the MF Global people that had their money stolen ultimately got most of their money back. Is that true or not?
according to Gerald Celente roughly 90%
I had an account at MF Global at the time, because I didn't follow the advice of my broker I ended up getting all of my capital back.
I can only give you +1 but this is worth +100
out of control gov metastasizing at nonstop rate must control capital and fund flow in order to feed itself off of populace; a vampiric evil force that must be stopped.
I thought those records were destroyed in a horrible jetliner attack at the Pentagon. There was such devastation, virtually no traces of the plane were ever recovered. Out of sensitivity to the families and the citizenry, all video recording in the vicinity of the accident were withheld by authorities so that no media replay could ever bring repeated sorrow to the American people. Thank goodness the government is alert to our fragile sensibilities.
AND billions in US Treasury Bills were settled under emergency procedures immediately after 9/11............ some of which apparently were never supposed to exist
If such power exists then the 'War on Drugs' should be moot as any and all profits should be readily trackable and those receiving them held accountable.... oh wait..... maybe the CIA doesn't want you to know that the CIA is and has been one of the largest beneficiaries
If such power exists then 'insider trading' should also be readily trackable (including all those mysterious trades in airline stocks just before 9/11..... oh wait, they DID track those - to intelligence community employees.....
Man you didn't read close enough. ONLY poor people break the law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HYStaILsUw
Th ruling class is, has always been, and will always be above the law.
Another 'magic' flying object -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc1ql4TfCZw
"Then surely they can find that $Trillion that the Pentagon lost?
Over."
Of course they did......how do you think that data center in Utah got paid for?
Well now isn't that just speshul?! Our employyes in DC have cleverly figured out how to circumvent the very letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights and Constitution.
As usual, the MSM misleads. They injected the ole, reliable Al-Q when discussing the CIA's money tracking. This is a smoke screen. That's not what they're after. They are after their competing 'Drug-Runners' in Afghanistan. If anyone still believes the US is there for any other reason, they haven't been paying attention for the last 35 years.
As long as I pay my (TBTF) bank credit cards, (TBTF) bank mortgages (1st, 2nd and HELOC) and household bills on line using several TBTF bank accounts "they" will leave me alone.
Right?.........RIGHT?.............RIGHT??????
<Please, someone tell me a lie so that I can believe it's the truth.>
Fear not! All is well and will be forever.
<That big enough lie?>
MOAR please.
Ask, and ye shall receive:
You vastly underestimate what your credit card means for the TBTF banks, for the banking sector. You vastly underestimate the amount of political capital that has been invested in the dollar. And so you keep on asking questions like: "As long as I pay my mortgages and household bills on line using several TBTF bank accounts "they" will leave me alone, right? Right?" It's not like a sliding door. It's a very important thing. It's a project in the TBTF. That's why you have a very hard time asking people like them what would happen if. You will be safed. And your government with its precise rules and acting within its mandate, is there to this purpose.
No worries, Cog. Its all good. The US Fed Gub is, always has been, and always will be, a force for good. It is focused like a laser on the fact that you (and BenJanet) fund it, and that it works for you and thus shall have only your best interests as a citizen at heart.
Mother should I trust the government?
I thought mother is the government.
"I thought mother is the government."
No, but there are some in the upper levels of government who are real psychopath muthers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3KnCL0S_Ws
I wonder how long Bitcoin can survive in this environment?
Who says the CIA didn't create Bitcoin for just this purpose in the first place. The Blockchain recording every transaction of a single Bitcoin scares the hell out of me.
Nearly all encryption systems have a backdoor installed. The so called master key if you will.
I doubt the CIA created Bitcoin, but would not put it past creating one of the other virtual currencies out there. Likewise for other intel agencies. No matter, since Bitcoin is the largest blip on the radar right now, it will be the center of attention by the spooks until it holds no more secrets. You can count on it that NSA supercomputers are working day and night on the Bitcoin "problem". Once the problem has been solved, the spooks will then have the Enigma problem; choosing which targets to attack without tipping their hand to the Bitcoin community. They don´t care about how much it is worth, they want to know everything possible about it...from ownership to the transactions. After it´s been sucked dry of all its intel value, Congress and the FBI will get its shot to torpedo it.
Elsewhere, Jon Corzine is still not shaking in his boots.
Also,
I'd argue that transfers, unlimited in size to the regular Joe, are NOT scrutinized, or they would have jailed complicit banks laundering drug money.
Didn't you hear? All MF Global retail customers will be made whole. All fixed!
<It seems everyone else can just go pound sand.>
Whew, no reason to go after Corzine. Actually he should get the key to the city....
I think I'll just start shoplifting in the supermarket. If caught, I'll just pay for the groceries, and everyone will be happy.
Our politicians and banker friends get away with it, so why not the rest of us?
Very logical approach, but the "pay if you get caught and everything is fine rule" doesn't apply to the little people, like you and me.
Remember how Turbotax Timmy didn't pay his taxes, but when Zero wanted to make him Treasury Secratary, all he had to do was pay his back taxes? If you or I tried that, we'd go to jail, because after all, we're only little people.
Our role is to pay taxes and obey! Never forget your place!
Only paid his back taxes for five years. Statute of limitations let him get away with the prior years even though the statue doesn't recognise fraud.
They can't do that, I don't know exactly how big a percentage that represents of our GDP but I would guess its a biggun.
Corzine already has his elitist DON'T FUK WITH ME chip installed
'If I Got the Chip, You Don't Acquit'
He's what is referred to in marketing as an Early Adopter
The real hold-up, the real crime, is how much American banks charge their clients for an int'l. money transfer. From USA to Suisse is $40.-- from Suisse to USA is CHF 7.-- I repeat CHF 7.-- when you make the transfer yourself. Why do you think "IBAN" exists? Do it yourself - but OH NO, NOT in the USA.
What even the ones from the FED into the bank accounts of those at the top? Or is that off limits for them?
What's the matter? Was the CIA feeling left out of the long shadow cast by the NSA?
Sharing is caring. Hasn't everyone figured it out yet. Every agency and private entities databases regardless of law are going to be able to accessed centrally to put together comprehensive records of every single person and movements using all this information. If they can't do it stealthly they will do it in broad daylight and if they can't do either then they will use private entities like common core is setting up using private companies to database information for the HHS to get the information. Either way once it makes its way into the cloud the NSA will be able to get it due to the public/private partnerships in place without having to do any real hacking to get at it now.
The CIA assassinated at least one President. They're still at the top of their class and NSA won't even come close. CIA is allowed to torture anywhere on the globe but mainland USA. Maybe a wet dream for the NSA boys and girls but who knows? Who is to say it has to remain on their bucket list forever?
Did you really expect to find otherwise?
I yawned. To those surprised -> old Yeller dies in the end, the chick in "The Crying Game" is a man, and Darth Vader is Luke's father.
Bastard!
and finding out Goldman is the NWO
I was a theater usher when that movie was playing. We would time our auditorium checks to coincide with the weiner reveal and enjoy the audience's gasps over and over.
All of these new releases of "information" are simply the "revelation of the method". The long march through the institutions is almost complete!
We got the 3000$ but missed the 30million + to WS terrorists...
Obama funds terrorists in Syria. I don't need software to tell me that so someone arrest the fucker for it. Also arrest Cameron, Bliar, and hague for the same offenses
As someone mentioned (somewhere I cannot remember), with all the phone records and bank records the government could smash all organised crime and all the street gangs (punks) within a few years. But they're not, which means they probably have far more sinister plans for the future.
Personally I'm VERY worried about what's coming in the future and a) I'm no crackpot, and b) the only crime I commit is smoking the odd joint (in essence I shouldn't be worried about anything but I am).
BWAHAHAHA ...... we gots crimes on you never even heard of ... ingnorant laws and all that.
thanks for confessing
someone with a swat team will be there shortly to arrest you and peper spray your kids and shoot your dog
"vie dit cho leaf ur door open, my troops vanted the plesure of kikin it in"!
Do you even care to know how much of American GDP is organized crime?
They have zero interest to stop organized crime. At the most they want to control all aspects of it but they will never put an end to it. Most of the guys in the elite are from organized crime or have ties in one way or another. But nothing ever sticks unless their own cabal is after them and then the dirt comes out.
So, CIA dude, where/when are the TBTF executive indictments?
Or maybe Craigslist transactions are your priority?
If they say international transfers only, then you know everything is monitored. Cant they just use NSA database? Why not double the cost and effort!
But why have one when you can have two at twice the cost?
Face it - we live in a fascist, police state. The NSA spies on everyone including Congress, the White House, judges including Supreme Court judges, military leaders, academicians - everyone. No one knows who is the real power in the land of the free while we masquerade as a democracy. The NSA collects more than 3 billion pieces of intelligence on the American people a month - 3 billion violations of the fourth amendment a month but who cares? All the proof is there for everyone to see but do not expect US media to report it:
The stunning implication of this passage is that NSA spying targets not only ordinary American citizens, but also Supreme Court justices, members of Congress and the White House itself. One could hardly ask for a more naked exposure of a police state.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/09/13/surv-s13.html
You Sir are wrong! There is one country that the NSA does not spy on.
Israel.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/11/03/world/documents-show-nsa-e...
Over.
The older I get the more I know to watch what they say they are concerned about and where they jump into action.
First rule: government always vigorously protects government. Citizens are protected to the extent their situation reflects upon government;
Second rule: Where government could easily know of a crime but does not take action, their priorities are elsewhere. For example, for 30 years it is almost child's play for a data base expert to look at IRS 941 and W2 filings to find employers who were paying employees with SSNs that were in circulation and having multiple fraudulent users. In other words, to find employers with clusters of illegal aliens. Government interest in these easy pickings? Lotter-odds/nearly zero.
Consider how many tens of millions of SARs (Suspicious Activity Report) are filed each year. An ocean of forms and robotic compliance. How many investigations? Hardly any. Our government is happy to force citizens into obedience, yet for what? Mainly so it can protect itself when necessary.
Oh, only a "limited" number of CIA analysts are allowed to search the database. That's different!
"Limited" means "less than infinite."
"Neither the number of employees nor the size of the Agency's budget can, at present, be publicly disclosed."
-- from cia.gov About CIA FAQS
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Yes, I'm feeling ever so much more comfortable now that I know only a 'limited number' can view my financial transactions, for limited number of years..
Must be only tracking the rich then. I don't have any money.
I'm shocked that the organization responsible for assassinating JFK in broad daylight and producing the "not a missile" video for TWA 800 could do such things...
Found on Facebook... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
https://onlycoin.com/?referral=cyNkaojB
It would have been more interesting to hear to my verbal response than for me to try to type all of the cuss words that ensued.
Theys gon be tracked!!!
Mein Gott, and it looks like they made it so you can't cut it up easily.
Don't the Edward Snowden revelations about the NSA make it plain that the true government of this country since WWII has been the CIA & the NSA? The republic died under the cover of WWII. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches have become nothing but an elaborate and expensive Dog & Pony Show, with the CIA & NSA working tirelessly, at home and abroad, in secret, for US based transnational corporations. The USA became the NSSA(National Security States of America). For a quick look at the new form of global financial colonialism which emerged after WWII, watch the John Perkins animation Economic Hitmen (1:56)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqdiyY5waMM. While the gullible part of the population get the Peace Corp and Foreign Aid on the surface, the real government of the US has been destabilizing the world, to the benefit of the corporations. Would anyone please tell me what part of this is "American Exceptionalism"?
Yes, but more and more countries are waking up and either passively or agressively bucking off American imperialism. The trick (as least what I'm seeing) seems to be to not buck too hard, because with that comes the fist of the corporate backed war machine.
Saddam = any currency acceptable for his country's oil.
Gadaffi = created gold backed dinars to trade his country's oil for.
Assad = doesn't want to play by US/Israeli rules. Strategic pipeline location.
Rouhanni (and previous leaders) = sure as hell don't want US/Israeli rules. Has oil + nat gas.
A lot of Africa is lost to the US, but they'll siphon off our "aid" anyway. The bucking is less intense in Bolivia and Venezuela, but the leaders there are hoisting their own petards.
'cos if you have any money then you must be a terrrrst. Everyone knows you can't legitimately make money in this economy.
'cos the safest place to store your money is as digital ones and zeroes, while being charged fees, where some stranger living thousands of miles away can take that money whenever they feel like it. Waddya gonna do about it? Mug your next-door neighbour?
Well, now the jackasses will find out that I have been buying WB7 artwork and framing it. In other words, fuck off CIA. Molon labe. Because you fucking spies are so stupid I will translate that for you. It means "Come and take". So? Lazy fucking taxpayer handout eating pricks anyway.
another reason to hold PM's, cia tsa nsa can kiss my ass.
vast database of international money transfers...
another reason to hold PM's...
Not just "hold", but to use in trade. Frns are serial numbered for a reason, whereas coinage allows for a more discreet method of commerce. Intrinsic value has been purposefully and methodically ridiculed, manipulated and removed from the general consciousness of the US populace for so long and the freedom associated with its’ use rarely if ever been personally experienced by anyone under 50, that to re-introduce it now would be no less acceptable to tptb than Moses’ asking Pharoah to “Let My People Go”.
It will take signs and wonders as great as the plagues of Egypt before we slaves give up our leeks and 5 dollar Costco chickens.
jmo.
Hardcore Conservatives? No. I think real conservatives are Libertarians. The Republican political party (GOP) is split between Warmongers (Neocons) and Libertarian-Leaners (Tea-Party).
I was never a fan of Bush. Bush sucked so bad that I voted for Kerry ('04) in my frist election and for Obama in my third ('08). Oops, sorry. Part of me is glad that I got to see the Neocon game first hand, as sandy and shitty as it was; but another part of me wishes we could just be a free country again which puts peace above war.
It's how they know when to collect their vig and how much to ask for.
I am and remain available to help anyone who wishes to escape the U.S. emigrate to South America: a working knowledge of Spanish and Christian background very helpful... and as a former professor of history... I can tell you exactly how this story of the expansion of the police state in the U.S. ends.
"the CIA is instead focusing on is whether mom and pop are using Western Union to deposit $500 in Al-Qaeda's account in Afghanistan."
That's doesn't seem right:
1. its the CIA is funding Al-Qaeda. There's a Youtube video showing marines guarding the Afgan Poppy (Opium) fields, which is used to fund terror^H^H^H^H rebels in Syria and other ME states.
2. I think the CIA would more interested in who is donating to the Tea Party.
Anyone disagree?
Swift, ISBN, Transit, all this tracking by the banks and yet Corzine got away with depositors money, think the CIA's tracking is new, Fuck no! just selective.
Your money belongs to us.