Government Money Control Nightmare

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is proposing that banks report all electronic money transfers in and out of the country, expanding its anti-terrorism requirements for financial institutions.

Officials at the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said Monday that the new requirement would boost their ability to track the source of funding for terrorists.


Currently banks are required to only report cash transactions above $10,000. They are also required to keep records on all electronic transfers of money in and out of the country above $3,000 and provide that information to law enforcement officials if asked to do so.

James H. Freis Jr., the director of the Treasury agency, said that widening the reporting requirement would provide benefits with only a "modest cost to industry."

"This regulatory plan will greatly assist law enforcement in detecting and ferreting out transnational organized crime, multinational drug cartels, terrorist financing and international tax evasion," Freis said in a statement announcing that the proposed rules were being published in the Federal Register for public comment.

The proposed expansion of reporting requirements would not take effect until 2012.

Comments:

Another red herring raised by the Obama administration.  How does this improve ant-terrorism laws.  Do the feds want to know if some sends $25 to Osama?  Or how about $800 to bail their kids out of a Mexican jail?  How does this assist us with national security?  

Critics contend that requiring banks to report all money transfers involving foreign wire transactions would represent a massive expansion in government access to personal data.

"It is an extraordinary overreach by the U.S. government," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based organization on privacy rights. "This looks like a big electronic fishing expedition."

He said the proposal would raise serious concerns in many European countries where banking customers have greater privacy rights with regard to their financial transactions.

This is classical pathological behavior by a corrupt, pathological empire.  Attempts to control everything is a demonstration of desperation on the part of the Obama administration.  Has Obama been using George W as a consultant?  
The proposed measure is a gigantic waste of money, an assault on civil liberties, and another example of why we need less government, not more government.