Friday, June 23, 2006

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kit Bond today said that the public disclosure of a critical terror finance surveillance system used by the Treasury Department is yet another “severe blow” to government efforts to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks.

“The disclosure today is a severe blow to our intelligence capability to track down terrorists and protect the homeland from a catastrophic terrorist attack,” said Bond. “Once again, the New York Times has decided its right to publish is more important than the public’s right to be safe from terrorist attacks in this country.”

“As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has had oversight responsibilities for this program on both the Intelligence Committee and as Chairman of the Treasury appropriations subcommittee, I can assure the public that this was an extremely valuable tool in disrupting terrorist financing.”

Bond noted that the final report of the 9/11 Commission awarded the government’s efforts to combat terrorist financing its highest grade, citing the government’s “significant strides in using terrorism finance as an intelligence tool.”

“Former CIA Director Porter Goss has said previous disclosures in the media have had a ‘very severe’ impact on our intelligence efforts. Current CIA Director Michael Hayden has said previous disclosures meant we would only capture dumb terrorists. Unfortunately, with this latest disclosure, it will now be more difficult to capture even the dumb terrorists.”

Today, the New York Times published a story regarding the government’s efforts to track terrorist financing. Administration officials had asked the Times not to publish the article, stating that doing so would significantly degrade the government’s ability to track terrorist activity.

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