by Mark Silva
Vice President Joe Biden, addressing the European Parliament today in Brussels, urged lawmakers to embrace a U.S. Treasury plan for tracking the finances of potential terrrorists -- and reiterated the Obama administration's commitment to cooperation as well.
The European Parliament has taken a tough stance on the collection of information about European Unnion citizens who fly to the United States or transfer money outside Europe under the American Treasury's Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.
Biden reminded his audience today of how information was used to prevent the accused Times Square bomber from leaving the U.S. on a flight to Dubai.
"We have disagreed before. We will surely disagree again,'' Biden told his Brussels audience today. "But I'm equally convinced that the United States and Europe can meet the challenges of the 21st Century, as we did in the 20th century if we talk and listen to one another, if we are honest with one another.''
The Parliament in February rejected an interim deal to share bank data with the U.S., which, as it is reported across the pond, "came as a surprise to U.S. officials who had launched an unprecedented lobbying campaign to convince (members of the European Parliament) not to vote against the deal. The Parliament also on Wednesday postponed a vote on a new EU-US accord on the transfer of so-called passenger name records - personal information collected on each airline passenger that flies to the US.'' The MEPs "fear the accords do not comply with EU citizens' data protection rights.''
"President Obama and I also believe that governments' primary and most fundamental and most solemn duty is to protect its citizens, the citizens it serves, as well as the rights they hold,'' Biden told his audience in Brussels today. "President Obama has said that keeping our country safe is the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning and the last thing he thinks about before he goes to bed at night. I suspect that is how every world leader looks at their role.
"Indeed, no less than privacy, physical safety is also an inalienable right -- physical safety is also an inalienable right. And a government that abdicates its duty to ensure the safety of its citizens violates their rights no less than a government that silences dissidents or imprisons accused criminals without trial.
"And so, folks, even -- even as we gather here today, our enemies are employing every tool they can muster to conduct new and devastating attacks like the ones that struck New York, London, Madrid, and many other places around the globe.''
(Vice President Joe Biden addresses the European Parliament at EU headquarters in Brussels. Photo by AFP / Getty Images).
"To stop them,'' Biden told the Parliament, "we must use every legitimate tool available -- law enforcement, military, intelligence, technology -- that's consistent with our principles, our laws, and our values. We're fighting on many fronts, from the brave men and women serving abroad in our militaries to the patient and tireless law enforcement professionals investigating complex and suspicious financial networks.
"Just this week, our Customs and Border Protection -- using passenger information data -- apprehended a suspect in the attempted bombing of New York's Times Square, as he sought to flee the country,'' he said. "It is vital that we maintain every capacity we have under the law to stop such attacks.
"And for that reason, we believe that the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program is essential to our security, as well as to yours -- presumptive of me to say. It has provided critical leads to counterterrorism investigations on both sides of the Atlantic -- disrupting plots and ultimately saving lives. It is built -- it has built-in redundancies that ensure personal information is respected and used only for counterterrorism purposes. But I don't blame you for questioning it.
"We understand your concerns,'' said Biden, who called himself a 36-year member of Washington's own "Parliament..... "As a consequence, we are working together to address them and I'm absolutely confident that we can succeed, to both use the tool and guarantee privacy. It's important that we do so, and it's important that we do so as quickly as possible.
"As a former United States senator, I also know how hard it can be to make the hard choices required by global challenges, while staying true to local values. All of you are going through that every time you vote in this Parliament, I suspect,'' he said. "The longer we are without an agreement on the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, the greater the risk of a terrorist attack that could have been prevented. As leaders, we share a responsibility to do everything we can within the law to protect the 800 million people we collectively serve.
Comments
How can we expect Europe to be honest with us when the Bush Republicans just got done spending eight years lying to them and fearmongering at them?
Posted by: HHH | May 6, 2010 2:49 PM
Way to go, Vice-President Biden. Speak with the world community, show them, we, Americans, are a part of the world community. Speak against the fanatics that want to injure, if not destroy, others, who haven't a clue, as to their grievances, let alone, their delusional political positions. We will guard against their insanity, their murderous ways, but we will not turn America into an armed and locked-down nation, not for anyone, or anything. That also goes for that abysmal response by the state government of Arizona. This is America, not the GULAG !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | May 6, 2010 3:24 PM
Of course our government wants us to give up our rights for the false sense of security. Why else would the idiot in chief have ramped up cell phone tracking? Now we have clueless Joe over in Europe fearmongering and using some muslim clown as an example.
Nice job Joe, tell us again how you had no rules about how quickly airlines had to update their no fly lists. Tell us again how your federal agents lost this guy on his way to the airport.
The lib view of security is "you can trust us with your private information," we won't leave FBI files of our political enemies lying around the white house. We won't access and release data from federal and state databases to discredit you Joe the plumber.
The new lib policy of hope is that we will hope the terrorists bombs don't go off. Thanks Joe and your incompetent boss for extending the unconstitutional Bush policies while simultaneously alienating us from our traditional allies. Maybe your new buddies Hugo and Fidel would be willing to share their tips for ensuring the "safety" of their subjects, I mean citizens.
Posted by: Hans | May 6, 2010 4:53 PM
Trickled On,
Who can forget quotes such as this? How dare they lie us into war.
January 23, 2003 - "Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..."
http://www.davidstuff.com/political/wmdquotes.htm
FITZ,
How's that closing of Gitmo going? Only 14 more days until BO s/b pulling the troops from Iraq. IS he going to make that deadline?
Posted by: Terry | May 6, 2010 6:40 PM
Poser Terri,
Bush and Darth invaded Iraq based on lies.
It doesn't matter what anyone else said.
And no amount of pretzel logic from you is going to change that.
Class Dismissed!
Posted by: HHH | May 7, 2010 12:01 AM
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Tell us again how your federal agents lost this guy on his way to the airport.
Posted by: Hans | May 6, 2010 4:53 PM
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Crazy Hans,
The Repug clowns that you supported ignored all warnings and allowed 9/11 to happen on their watch.
The hard working Feds under Pres Obama successfully researched and caught the failed NYC bomber. The system under the Democrats worked. Period, end of story.
Face it Hans, after the disasterous Bush administration, the Repugs have NO anti terror or foreign policy credibility. None, Zero, Zip, Nada.
Posted by: HHH | May 7, 2010 12:15 AM
At least as "Honest" as Joey when he talks about his past and how he plagiarized his story of his hard luck childhood. Not to mention other fabrications.
Posted by: senator dirksen | May 7, 2010 9:48 AM
Triple H.
This is not a playground at school. And it does matter what other people said seeing how they were leaders of other countries and our very own congressman. By using your logic everything that is going wrong right now is Obama's fault. In reality a lot of it is but not all of it. And it has already been shown how the previous administration before Bush dropped the ball on bin Laden. And considering how badly the New York City bomber messed up made easy for the feds and everybody for liberals can see that. You should try reading foreign newspapers and see what they really think of Obama. Even the Canadians think Obama is becoming a burdensome joke.
What is really funny is the comparison between a heavy Democratic area versus a heavy Republican area during a disaster. Case in point New Orleans versus Tennessee. New Orleans where's my money versus Tennessee pulling together and starting to clean up. New Orleans where's my free ticket out of here versus Tennessee this is our home and we will rebuild.
Posted by: CrooksInDC | May 7, 2010 11:29 AM
“How can we expect Europe to be honest with us when the Bush Republicans just got done spending eight years lying to them and fearmongering at them?”
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Posted by: HHH | May 6, 2010 2:49 PM
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How? I’ll tell you how, JohnEEE-Boy.
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First of all, Europeans don’t generally treat honesty as a tit-for-tat or sine qua non proposition, and they don’t lie just because they have an American audience. They will deal with us honestly because doing so serves their interests - just like it serves our interests to deal honestly with them.
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In the second place, unlike you, Europeans know that it takes more than eight years of strained relations to destroy the ties we have built over the past 234 years between our side of the Atlantic and theirs. We have provided markets for their goods, welcomed their ex-patriots to our shores, shed our blood and expended our treasure in their defense, helped them rebuild from ruins and ashes after wars, and stood together with them against common enemies. We still do. They have done the same. Europeans do not quickly forget these things. Even the Europeans who view us as poorly educated or uncultured do not deny our usefulness in these matters.
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In the third place, unlike you, Europeans have enough intelligence to know an aberrant administration when they see one. Any student of foreign policy could see that G. W. Bush’s foreign policies, and particularly his elective/preemptive war doctrine and militant Wilsonianism, represented a significant departure from prior Republican administrations (including his father’s). I wonder why you think Europeans all of a sudden lack enough smarts to figure out that our political process produces politicians with widely different views, or that they would attempt to saddle Obama and his successors in office with the sins of G.W. Bush.
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But, of course, we know why YOU expect such a hostile reaction from the Europeans. You have a knack for blowing things out of proportion to reality. You also suffer from ‘guilty-Democrat’ syndrome. You think all Americans should feel guilty, and all other nations should condemn us, forever because of some wrongs committed by a few political leaders. Well, if you want to punch yourself in the face, go right ahead. (And please tell us where this will occur, because I would like to see it.) Don’t expect everyone else to let such an irrational guilt complex keep us from moving forward.
Posted by: John W. | May 7, 2010 1:31 PM
This administration actually has the nerves to send this baboon to tell Europe to be honest. God help us if Obama is elected to a second term we will be Greece by the end of it. If you think I am that far from the mark then you need to look at what is happening in Greece and what they have done in the past 10 years to get them to this point. And then look to what we have done in just the first year and a half under Obama.
Posted by: CrooksInDC | May 9, 2010 9:24 AM