The New York Times blows open another secret program: Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror.

Well, it isn’t “secret” any more, is it?

WASHINGTON, June 22 — Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database.

UPDATE at 6/23/06 9:43:38 am:

At today’s press conference, Tony Snow said the administration asked the New York Times not to reveal this program. He also said the program had been instrumental in capturing Hambali, the mastermind of the Bali nightclub bombings.