Dirty Money

The Notion:

"The New York Times devoted a lot of ink to the Bush Administration's practice of secretly rummaging through international banking transactions in pursuit of terrorists. But, frankly, I had a hard time grasping the scandal.
After all, the Treasury announced it was going to do something like this after 9/ll -- a legitimate, legal method of discovering the networks financing terrorist cells.

So I called an old friend and source for elucidation. Jack Blum is a legendary investigator and lawyer in Washington, who for decades has tenaciously uncovered the global flows of dirty money. Jack confirmed my hunch. He was outraged, but not by the Times revelations.

The scandal here is not government over-reach, he tells me.

The scandal is the pitiful reluctance of this administration (and others before it) to get serious about the problem.
Bankers, Blum explained, 'have fended off every conceivable rule that would really be effective. Why are we pandering to them if we say we are in such a desperate situation?' "