Replying to a message of Geo to Mark:

 G> Do you know why this administration keeps getting their nuts burnt with
 G> leaks? It's because the people working for them believe they have
 G> crossed a line. That's why these people go to the media, because they
 G> think what's going on is wrong, un-needed, and irresponsible.

The NSA spying on citizens being a salient example.  The whole effort can be
defeated by the use of disposable cell phones - calls can be traced to that
phone, but not to who owns or possesses it.  And since the phones can be
trashed when the prepaid minutes have been used up there's no trail to follow.

The current brouhaha over the NYT publishing 'secret' gov't tracing of 'terrorist'
financial transactions is another administration attempt to silence criticism.  It's
been public knowledge for at least a decade that the government has been monitoring
financial transactions (any cash transaction > $10,000 must be reported
to the government
- note that the criteria may have changed, and the threshold is probably lower, since
I last read about it) as part of its 'war on drugs' (note that making two
transactions,
one for $9,000 and one for $1,000 is also considered a crime - attempting to
circumvent the law); the tax people do it, too - looking for unreported income.
The bottom line is that the government isn't just tracking 'terrorist' financial
transactions, it's tracking *all* financial transactions - and has been for years,
people just aren't aware of it; and if the government would stop complaining and
threatening the NYT, the people will have forgotten all about it by this time next
week.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+