The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times today disclosed the existence of a secret, but entirely legal, program to monitor financial transactions between America and overseas nations. A priceless counter—terrorism tool may have been rendered ineffectual. 

For certain kinds of funds transactions there is a nerve center, a Belgian cooperative that routes about 6 trillion dollars daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. This is where the program was focused.

The goal was to trace financial flows between people previously suspected of having Al Qaeda or other terror ties. The operation, up till now anyway, has proven a success:

[The program] has provided clues to money trails and ties between possible terrorists and groups financing them, the officials said. In some instances, they said, the program has pointed them to new suspects, while in others it has buttressed cases already under investigation.

Among the successes was the capture of a Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said. The Swift data identified a previously unknown figure in Southeast Asia who had financial dealings with a person suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda; that link helped locate Hambali in Thailand in 2003, they said.

In the United States, the program has provided financial data in investigations into possible domestic terrorist cells as well as inquiries of Islamic charities with suspected of having links to extremists, the officials said.

The data also helped identify a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism—related charges last year, the officials said. The man, Uzair Paracha, who worked at a New York import business, aided a Qaeda operative in Pakistan by agreeing to launder $200,000 through a Karachi bank, prosecutors said.

Before, civil libertarians rush to the defense of this disclosure, they should bear in mind that, as admitted by the New York Times, the program is entirely legal. The administration has briefed the members of Congress entitled to know of the program with nary a protest. (Of course, this will change if the issue becomes politically potent. Then there will be a chorus of feigned outrage that Tia Maria's money orders are being spied upon.)

The terror—supporting Times felt free to disclose this legal and highly effective program. Now the subjects of future investigations are on notice. In Stephen Spruiell's words,

The program has built—in safeguards to prevent abuse. And yet, with nothing more than a vague appeal to the "public interest" (which apparently is not outweighed in this case by the public's interest in apprehending terrorists), the NYT disregards all that and publishes intimate, classified details about the program. Keller and his team really do believe they are above the law. When it comes to national security, it isn't the government that should decide when secrecy is essential to a program's effectiveness. It is the New York Times.

Money is the oxygen that fuels terrorism. Funds are needed to spread hate in mosques and schools, to pay for terror operations, which often take years of planning and preparation. So money flows are the jugular veins, necessary for survival but vulnerable. The tracing of money flows has won important cases.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the destruction of terror cells that were traced with American help, by monitoring money flows from America's Western Union company to terror groups in Israel.

Florida Professor Sami Al—Arian was defended almost as a martyr by the New York Times' Nicholas Kristoff in his columns. Al Arian was confronted with evidence that he served as a conduit for fundraising activities on behalf of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group responsible for the deaths of many innocent people in Israel. He pleaded guilty to  conspiracy

"to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Specially Designated Terrorist [sic], in violation of 18 U.S.C.