WikiLeaks: Obama Administration shocked by Europe Banking Transactions Rebuke

Monday, December 6, 2010 Obama administration shocked by Europe banking transactions rebuke The Obama administration was shocked by a rebuke from the European parliament over plans to monitor international banking transactions for terrorist activity, according to leaked diplomatic cables. The leaked cable came from the US embassy in Berlin In a leaked cable from the US embassy in Berlin, diplomats wrote: "Paranoia runs deep especially about US intelligence agencies." It added that the embassy was "astonished" to learn how quickly rumours about alleged US economic espionage had taken root among German politicians. The scheme was created amid much secrecy by the George W Bush administration after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It allowed US officials to examine of Swift international banking transactions passing through a database in Brussels but stoked opposition since it was first exposed by media reports in 2006. In February this year the European Parliament voted by 378 to 196 to halt the programme. The cables show that the Obama administration had valued the scheme because, they argued, it allowed the monitoring of suspected funders of terrorism while respecting the privacy of users. But many European allies considered it to be in contravention of national privacy laws and as running against basic requirements of civil liberty. American diplomats linked this in cases to European countries' experience with communist regimes and secret police. In Austria, one cable said that there was "a widespread presumption against government data collection and in favour of stringent privacy protections". The US embassy in Berlin linked opposition to the Swift scheme to Germans' memories of how the Stasi, the former East German secret police, had abused personal data.   Grow your own vegetables  -  patio, indoors, yard   Survival/Victory Garden: http://www.food4wealth.com/?hop=cielos   Please buy this Easy Program from Roy and Dee