From: "Randy H" 

[The article is released under the attribution-with-credit,
no-derivative-works Creative Commons license. --Declan]
-+-
To: Declan McCullagh 
From: Rob Carlson 
Subject: Your Bank Account, Your Liberties
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 23:20:50 -0500
X-UIDL: 195a7361b2aa2580ef4cbfc76c41d325 Your Bank Account, Your Liberties
By George Paine, Warblogging.com
Friday, January 2, 2004
http://www.warblogging.com/archives/000783.php

I went to the bank today. My debit and ATM card had stopped functioning on
New Year's Eve. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I must visit the
bank to review my account because of "possible fraud".

I arrived at the bank and went to my banker's office. He saw me coming in
and said "Hello, Mr. Paine, it's been too long." Once
pleasantries were out of the way he asked how he could help me. I explained
that my card had stopped working and that I had been informed over the
phone that I would have to come in and look over my past transactions, that
I would have to look for anything suspicious. That only then could my ATM
card -- my sole link to cold, hard cash -- be reactivated.

So he pulled up my account on his computer and rotated the monitor so that
we could both see the details of my financial life. He rolled the history
back several months and, together, we set to find anything suspicious. As
the pages -- the days -- rolled by on-screen I realized that these
transactions, these little digital notes, brought back memories. There was
that time, at that place, where I was with that person. It was all there,
in green and black.

I mentioned to him that these transactions brought back memories. He gave
me a knowing smile. He began to extrapolate details of my life, little
vignettes, from the transactions on the screen. He said "So, here, on
December 13. You get a cup of coffee with a friend. You head a few blocks
away and get some Sushi. I hear that restaurant's good. Then you go and
take in a show. Oh, here, yes. You have a couple drinks afterward."

I look at him, thinking. The man's right. That was, in fact, exactly what I
did that day. As we flipped through the days we started examining Christmas
shopping. He asked if the recipient of a particular gift had liked it. I
said that she did.

This man, my banker, knows some very private details of my life. He knows
where I eat dinner on a daily basis. He knows where I get my coffee. He
knows what bars I go to, and when I go to them. He knows where and when I
travel. He knows how long I spend in various places, he knows where I like
to buy books. He knows that I have donated to political campaigns, he knows
which campaigns, and he knows how much I have donated.

Once we had examined the sum of my daily financial life spanning several
months we determined, together, that no fraud had been perpetrated. It was
at this point that my banker reactivated my ATM card. I thanked him very
much for the service.

As we returned to unrelated conversation I noticed a small sign on his
desk. It was a small advertisement, a note from a banking services company.
It was printed on good stock with a flapping, slightly stylized American
flag serving as a backdrop. It was designed like a piece of campaign
literature, as if it were trying too hard to appear patriotic. It read
"USA PATRIOT Act compliance by..."

I don't remember the name of the company that provided its small sign to my
banker. A quick Google search, however, turns up quite a few companies who
offer such services. One of them is Aquilan. Aquilan offers a product it
calls Aquilan Patriot Manager. They advertise that APM can help financial
institutions "Know Your Customers. 'Red Flag' Suspicious Activity.
Prevent Money Laundering."

My time with my banker today was innocuous. His hopefully brief foray into
the details of my life were largely at my request, largely for my
protection. But the USA PATRIOT Act requires financial institutions to
report "suspicious activity" to federal law enforcement agencies.
As Aquilan's Web site notes, "For most financial institutions, complex
distribution channels, clients with multiple relationships, and disparate
adminstration and transaction systems make compliance with the USA PATRIOT
Act expensive and nearly impossible."

But here Aquilan's software -- and the software of so many other companies,
including the one that provided that patriotic sign to my banker -- make
the "impossible" possible. As Aquilan observes:

    Aquilan Patriot Manager offers the quickest path to full compliance
    with the USA PATRIOT Act, including Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
    screening requirements, Customer Identification Program (CIP)
    requirements, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) rules,
    and required Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) monitoring. By
    extracting essential information from both client and
    administration systems, Aquilan helps financial services
    institutions assemble the 360§ view of customer relationships
    required to identify suspicious activity and meet regulatory
    requirements.

Aquilan's software works, I am sure, much the same way as the software that
identified possible banking fraud. It works quite the same way as the
software that prevented me from removing cash from my own bank account, the
software that forced me into my bank branch for a half-hour long meeting
with my banker. The software that was wrong, that "red-flagged"
my account as showing fraudulent activity when, in fact, it did not.

Aquilan's software, and, I'm sure, all other PATRIOT Act verification
software, is deeply flawed. This software is prone to false positives, just
like the fraud detection software that brought me into the bank on my day
off. The PATRIOT Act verification software is as likely to bring the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to my door as the fraud detection software
was to bring me to my bank branch. It is likely to necessitate a full
government examination of my finances, of my habits, of my life.

It is likely to cause the FBI to pour over my financial records just as my
banker and I did today. And those little innocent vignettes, those little
guesses at my life that my banker engaged in... it is likely to cause the
FBI to construct similar vignettes, to "watch" as I have coffee
with a friend and later take in a show.

On December 13^th of this year President Bush signed H.R. 2417, the
"Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004". After
signing the bill Bush gave a statement in which he noted that "The
executive branch shall construe these provisions in a manner consistent
with the Constitution's commitment..."

What I wouldn't give to hear President Bush pronounce some of the
tongue-twisters and verbally dense sentences contained in his statement.
Bush says much in the statement, but he does not mention a key provision of
H.R. 2417.

That provision of H.R. 2417 expands the FBI's powers to access your and my
bank records. On December 17^th I wrote about Bush's signing of the bill,
saying that "the legislation allows John Ashcroft to issue himself a
'National Security Letter' in order to conduct many searches."

Specifically, Ashcroft and his FBI no longer need to visit with a judge and
explain themselves when they want to see your or my bank records. They no
longer even have to get a notice from the bank that our banking habits are
"suspicious". No longer can a federal judge say "No, I think
you're on a fishing expedition. You can't see George Paine's banking
information."

Now John Ashcroft -- or one of his underlings -- simply have to write down
on a piece of paper that your or my bank records are somehow related to
national security. They must sign this letter and keep it on file. As soon
as they do so they may access my bank records and, like my banker,
construct little vignettes for themselves about my day-to-day life.

If this doesn't concern you it should. Think back to the skeleton or two
that may be in your closet. That purchase at that shady store, your visit
to that questionable bar, your meeting with that questionable person. All
this information and more can be found -- or, more dangerously, inferred --
within your bank records. Does this still not concern you? Well, I won't
mention the fact that this new power given to Ashcroft by Bush's signature
is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, which states:

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
    papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
    shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon
    probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly
    describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to
    be seized.

I understand that for most people the Fourth Amendment, like the entire
Constitution, is little more than a theoretical document. But what you must
understand is that it is written like it is for a reason. It is written as
it is to prevent the abuse of power. It is written as it is because the
Founding Fathers understood that "power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely."

For an example of this corruption one must look no further than the Federal
Bureau of Investigation itself. Take, for example, the program known as
COINTELPRO, a program conceived "to neutralize political
dissidents". I write more about COINTELPRO in my post on the signing
of H.R. 2417. Suffice it to say that a great many people who had broken no
law, who had done nothing wrong, were not only investigated by the FBI but
were the targets of campaigns to "discredit and publicly destroy"
them.

One must look no further than the Drug Enforcement Administration and Kevin Tamez.

Tamez is fifty years old and lives in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, a pleasant
suburb of Philadelphia. Until December Tamez served as the Associate
Special Agent in Charge of the DEA's New York office. But on Monday,
December 15^th, a 214-count indictment was issued against Tamez, as Reuters
reported at the time. Tamez was accused of "embezzling DEA funds and
using federal resources to conduct work for a private investigations
firm."

What federal resources did Tamez misappropriate? Tamez was charged,
specifically, with "illegally obtaining information from law
enforcement computer systems and databases and using DEA personnel and
resources for work he did for a private investigations firm."

Imagine Special Agent Tamez as an FBI agent. Imagine him issuing himself a
National Security Letter and proceeding to pass the information gathered
with that Letter on to his client, perhaps your spouse, perhaps a business
competitor. Your bank records aren't all that Tamez can access. He can
access your interactions with virtually every business that deals in your
money -- that is, nearly all. As I noted earlier, H.R. 2417 allows Tamez to
access records "from your auctions on eBay to your credit card
receipts to your insurance records".

It isn't only Agent Tamez with access to this information. Do you remember
Filegate? That was the scandal in which the White House requested the FBI
files of a number of prominent Republicans -- and got them. The Clinton
Administration requested the files of such Republicans as James Baker, a
former Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury and Chief of Staff to
a president.

In fact more than 1,000 FBI files were requested and obtained by the White
House. At the time Judicial Watch (a group which was a significant thorn in
the side of the Clinton Administration and now of the Bush Administration)
accused the White House of using the "Ellen Rometsch strategy",
explaining that "By historical definition, the Ellen Rometsch strategy
is the use of FBI files by J. Edgar Hoover".

Larry Klayman, chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch, said that
"Judicial Watch and others believe that this is the Clinton
Administration's last line of defense to its scandals, to smear people, to
scare people, to make sure than they can hold on to power."

This sounds uncomfortably familiar. The Bush Administration, after all,
engaged in similar but even more egregious behavior recently. After former
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson wrote an op/ed piece in the New York
Times accusing Bush of lying about Iraqi uranium procurement efforts the
White House leaked information that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame was an
undercover CIA operative. The leak appeared to be, as Warblogging wrote
shortly after, calculated by Karl Rove "to send a very, very specific
message. He wanted everyone to see what happens when someone speaks out
against Bush. He wanted everyone to see the consequences of contradicting
George Bush's lies. Careers end, lives are destroyed. Those are the
consequences, that was the message."

And so we return to your bank records, to your purchases from Amazon.com,
to your visits to that sketchy bar or the presents purchased for that man
or woman who isn't your spouse. Not only your bank records, but the bank
records of influential politicians opposed to whatever party may currently
be in power. The detailed records and vignettes of lives opposed to whoever
may be currently in the seat of power. And to Valerie Plame, to Filegate,
to Special Agent Tamez, to COINTELPRO.

We realize that the Fourth Amendment -- and the rest of the Bill of Rights
-- exist for a reason, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. With
H.R. 2417, with the USA PATRIOT Act, with its ability to detain American
citizens indefinitely without charge or access to attorneys or judges the
Bush Administration now has absolute power. And with the Valerie Plame
affair and so many others the Bush Administration has proved that absolute
power does indeed corrupt absolutely.

The only hope we have now is for the entire electorate to appeal en masse
for the restoration of restraint and accountability to the White House. You
and your friends, you and your coworkers, you and your family must appeal
to the press and to your elected officials for the return of the rule of
the Constitution and reason. You must reassert your civil liberties and
insist that White House aides, overzealous FBI agents and corrupt DEA
agents not have access to your banking records without probable cause. You
must insist that your private details remain private without probable
cause. You must insist that you and your neighbors not be jailed without
charge, not be disappeared without lawyers, not be held without judicial
review. You must insist that the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing
when they wrote the Fourth Amendment -- and the rest of the Constitution --
and that their wisdom is no less relevant today than it was in 1776.

Do not think for a moment that your status as a relatively law abiding and
loyal citizen will save you from the long arm of the government. George
Soros recounts just how little being a law abiding and loyal citizen can do
for you when it's too late. He explains in his latest book how, when he was
thirteen, he was tasked with delivering notices to the Jewish community of
Budapest, Hungary ordering them to appear at the Rabbinical Seminary with
food and clothing the following day. On the advice of his father he
informed those he delivered the notice to that they would be deported when
they showed up. One man told him "They can't do that to me. I've
always been a law-abiding citizen." The following day he was sent to a
concentration camp.

I am not saying that George Bush is going to send you or anyone else to a
concentration camp tomorrow. I am saying, however, that civil liberties are
everyone's responsibility -- and that when the rubber hits the road it
matters not whether you are a law-abiding citizen or not. It matters only
whether someone in power wants you or not.

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