Terror Tracking Report Prompts Backlash In US Congress
By John Godfrey, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/149092131?WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Republicans plan Thursdsay to bring to the U.S. House floor a non-binding resolution warning media outlets that they are "expected" not to disclose classified information such as the existence of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has authored his own non-binding resolution calling on the Justice Department to "vigorously and tirelessly investigate and prosecute" unauthorized leaks to the media.
The resolutions come in response to news reports disclosing the Bush administration's Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a special bank surveillance program to track terrorist financing.
Some terrorist financing experts say the White House is overreacting.
The Bush Administration has bragged for years that it is tracking terrorist finances. And, a 2002 advisory group to the U.N. Security Council specifically mentioned that the U.S. had already begun to tap the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication network for terrorist financing information.