WASHINGTON – Congressman Spencer Bachus today issued the following statement on the reporting of the U.S. Treasury’s Terrorist Finance Tracking Program:
“We are at war with a hostile and relentless enemy. While Americans have a general right to know the actions of their government, to defeat our enemies, certain operations must be conducted out of the media spotlight if they are to be effective.
“Following the defeat of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an internal al-Qaeda memo was recovered from the terrorist’s hideout. It explicitly states that al-Qaeda efforts have been hurt ‘by tightening the resistance's financial outlets.’ This statement serves as concrete evidence that programs such as the Administration’s Terrorist Finance Tracking Program are necessary and are working.
“This program has produced real results, including the arrest of two terrorists.
“Now, thanks to the irresponsible actions of some in the mainstream media, we can be assured that this program is virtually defunct. No longer will terrorists conduct their financial business with the Swift cooperative, and no longer will we be able to track their actions.
“Hopefully, our intelligence agencies will devise other means of monitoring our enemies and continue to tighten their financial outlets – that is until that program, too, is reported by The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.”
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