verbena-19

How much of Earth's atmosphere must we contaminate? How much of our lands and waters must we pollute? How much of our resources must we plunder, deplete? How many species must we ravage, despoil, extinguish? How many people must we degrade, deprive, destroy with toxic wastes and wars, before we learn to respect one another, to live in harmony on this planet, our Home? "All living beings are brothers and sisters, nourished from the same source of life.." -- Thich Nhat Hanh

: Name: Annamarie; Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada

I was born in Eastern Europe during the height of the Stalinist regime's reign of terror. Thus, I know what it is like to live under a repressive, dictatorial regime. The fear and terror -- as dissident friends and family members were tortured, imprisoned and some were executed -- is indelibly etched in my memory. That is the reason I have always been an ardent advocate of freedom, social justice, civil liberties, human rights and a voice of peace. The way I see it, war is morally wrong, regardless of who wages it, for whatever reason. No piece of land or commodity is worth the sacrifice of one human life. We are all members of the same race - the "human race" - and must learn to coexist peacefully. Our planet cannot sustain us much longer if we do not stop our wars, nukes, polluting, deforestation, and the wasteful, gluttonous consumption and depletion of our natural resources.

View my complete profile

Site Design & Affiliation:

Dale @ The Digital Memoirs Chris Floyd @ Empire Burlesque
Progressive Bloggers
My Ecosystem Details
Powered by Blogger

Use this site's RSS Feed

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Was CIA given access to Canadians' banking records?

Has the US been collecting confidential data on Canadians? It may be a likely scenario, and Canada's privacy commissioner is investigating the possibility that US officials and the CIA may have access to our banking records.

Also, the human rights group Privacy International filed formal complaints against SWIFT, the company in question. And last week, the New York Times revealed details of a secret program under which US officials and the CIA gathered data about banking transactions from SWIFT. These could include the transactions of Canadians, amongst those of many other countries.

Yesterday, a human rights group based in London filed formal complaints in 32 countries, including Canada, against the Brussels-based banking consortium known as SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, the International Herald Tribune reported.

The rights group, Privacy International, contends that SWIFT has violated rules in other jurisdictions by providing the United States with confidential information about international money transfers.

SWIFT is the hub of the global banking industry. It runs an electronic messaging service that 7,800 financial institutions — including Canadian ones — use to communicate, and to transfer billions of dollars daily.

Other countries are very upset about this program that is making headlines around the world. "CIA has access to your bank records," the Telegraph printed yesterday, and The Irish Times said "CIA monitors personal bank data of Irish citizens."

NSA spies on Americans, the CIA spies on Canadians and the rest of the world, all in the name of Dubya's GWOT. That should make us feel safer and sleep better at night, eh?

Read full Toronto Star article here.

UPDATE: After I had finished this post, I came across this article on the Political Cycles blog, about our very own Canadian spying by the CSE, given extraordinary powers via the Anti-Terror Act of 2001.

All in the name of protecting us from terrorism, right? Now we can really sleep better, as our world morphs into George Orwell's 1984.

Tags for this entry: CIA, U.S., CSE.