Vice-President Capone Meets the Reich Ministry of Justice

If any American's financial records ought to be examined until hell won't have it, that man would be Dick Cheney.

p m carpenter's commentary: Vice-President Capone Meets the Reich Ministry of Justice:

A 'perfectly legitimate activity' is how the vice president described the government's most recently revealed intrusion into civil liberties -- that of the Pentagon and CIA's snooping into financial records of 'suspect' Americans -- an intrusion that the New York Times bluntly reports is 'barred ... by law.'

In the accommodating atmosphere of 'Fox News Sunday,' Mr. Cheney declared, 'There’s nothing wrong with it or illegal. It doesn’t violate people’s civil rights. And if an institution that receives one of these national security letters [i.e., a written Pentagon/CIA demand for private financial records] disagrees with it, they’re free to go to court to try to stop its execution.'

Such institutional pushback would be an odd reaction indeed to a 'perfectly legitimate activity' by the government, however. First of all, financial institutions are being instructed officially as to the letters' legitimacy, so many are apt to automatically comply without question or resistance.