– by telling all to the Emperor’s stormtroopers with no legal authority from anybody? Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber, who knows a lot about privacy policy, thinks probably yes.
Dammit, this means ME – and the same realization is dawning on all those Essex Tory Daily Mail readers on the Costas. The Atlantic just got another league wider. (Update: unfortunately I have no evidence for wider expat outrage, see comments)
Barry says
"…and the same realization is dawning on all those Essex Tory Daily Mail readers on the Costas"
Could you please post a link? For recreational value, if nothing else. It's fun to watch right-wingers realize that they aren't in on the con, that they are part of the conned, along with us.
James Wimberley says
Hum. I spoke too soon – wishful thinking base don Henry Farrwell's Irish Times link. The BBC reported the item but the story hasn't run on. Of the right-wing British press, the Telegraph did (in a David Rennie column http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/davidrennie/… criticising the European press reaction) but I can't find anything on the Express and Mail sites. The German tabloid Dild Zeitung did, here. http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/aktuell/2006…
The Financial Times coverage doesn't count here.
I think I'll have to withdraw the post in a couple of hours as materially wrong. Sorry.
James Wimberley says
Offending assertion withdrawn by an update. I've left the post, as the link to Farrell is very worthwhile.
Barry says
Sorry, I didn't mean to criticize. I genuinely wanted to read some of the howls of pain, for amusement. I figure that, if the right wants to play quasi-dictatorial games, that they're fair game whenever they find themselves on the receiving end.
James Wimberley says
Don't apologise! While one of the dangers of blogging is shooting from the hip, one of its countervailing merits is the possibility of rapid correction of mistakes; and a mistake is mistake, whether it's pointed out by a hostile critic or a friendly commenter like you.
I still think the SWIFT episode is damaging. Increasing friction over data protection is one cost, as Farrell points out. He doesn't go into the dangers of Bush' lawlessness to cross-border cooperation between cops and between prosecutors. This only partly depends on treaties; more important is mutual confidence between professionals. To cut through red tape on say an arrest warrant, a cop needs to feel confidence that her/his opposite number is playing by similar rules, and would bend them only to a similar extent. If the US is perceived as having thrown the rule-book away, and it clearly has, cooperation is bound to be chilled. It's taken a long time to get working international cooperation over money laundering. The Bush damage won't be put right in a day.