Do you want to know a secret?

Presidential hissy fit.

President Bush on Monday sharply condemned the disclosure of a program to secretly monitor the financial transactions of suspected terrorists. "The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he said.

"For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said, jabbing his finger for emphasis. He said the disclosure of the program "makes it harder to win this war on terror."

The program has been going on since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It was disclosed last week by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

The Vice weighs in, in his usual nuanced way:

Dick Cheney, in a speech Monday at Grand Island, Neb., said, "Some of the press, particularly The New York Times, have made the job of defending against further terrorist attacks more difficult by insisting on publishing detailed information about vital national security programs."

When I read the story last week, I have to say I found myself less than shocked by the report. Why? Have I become so inured to the Cheney administration's obsession with secrecy? It's demand that Constitutional fetters fall before the threat of potential terrorism? It's strange logic that demands that an organization that provides charity work in the middle east must be shut down?

Yes, all those things.

But, then, there's also this exchange from Dec. 4, 2001:

JIMMY GURULE: Well, first of all, the Holy Land Foundation has been the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI for several years. So it has been on the radar screen of federal law enforcement for a long period of time. This isn't an organization that just recently came to the attention of the Department of the Treasury and the FBI.

The Department of the Treasury has developed strong and credible and compelling evidence that the Holy Land Foundation is involved in funneling and transferring money to Hamas to support terrorist activities.

MARGARET WARNER: What kind of terrorist activities?

JIMMY GURULE: Well, one example, the president stated this in his statement in the Rose Garden today. Hamas receives money from the Holy Land Foundation with respect to schools. There are schools that are supported by the Holy Land Foundation, and these schools encourage children to engage in terrorist activities specifically suicide bombing activities. So that's one example.

Another example is the money that is raised by the Holy Land Foundation is used to support the families of suicide bombers that engage in suicide terrorist attacks, an insurance policy, if you will, for the survivors of terrorist attacks by suicide bombers.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, are you able to track that? Are you actually able to track money from the Holy Land Foundation to Hamas, to actually these families, or are you saying the Holy Land Foundation, let's just take that example directly supports these families?

JIMMY GURULE: We're able to track money from donors to bank accounts, from bank accounts to the Holy Land Foundation back to the Holy Land Foundation to schools that support terrorist activities.

We do this through the use of the Bank Secrecy Act, the database that is administered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is an agency within the Treasury Department.

We are able to do this through the Foreign Asset Tracking Center, which is an agency within the Treasury Department as well, so there are several vehicles, several mechanisms that we use in order to track terrorist assets.

Loose lips sink secret surveillance programs, Jimmy. You terra-lova.

Via Mr. T-Bogg.