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U.S. Defends Use of Bank Messaging System to Track Terrorists

Treasury says eyeing financial transactions is legal and nabs bad guys

U.S. Treasury officials outlined a "terrorist finance tracking program" after press reports published specifics about it June 23. The program grew out of U.S. government efforts to map terrorist networks after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The program allows the U.S. Treasury Department to get information on international money transfers from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), a Belgium-based company that operates a messaging system used by 7,800 financial institutions in 200 countries.

Treasury officials said they informed the central banks of each of the G10 countries of the program and that those bodies raised no objections. In addition to the U.S. Federal Reserve system, those banks include the National Bank of Belgium, the Bank of Canada, Deutsche Bundesbank, European Central Bank, Banque de France, Banca d' Italia, Bank of Japan, De Nederlandsche Bank, Sveriges Riksbank, Swiss National Bank, and the Bank of England.

Treasury Secretary John Snow stressed that members of Congress who oversee the Treasury Department have also been briefed on the program.

Stuart Levey, Treasury under secretary for the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said SWIFT captures roughly 80 percent of international financial transactions. He said the U.S. Treasury has made queries on "tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands" of transactions and has been able to learn names, addresses and account numbers of those sending money. He said he could not break down the data to give the countries of citizenship of the targets of inquiries.

Snow said the program is not a data mining operation but one in which each search must be preceded with evidence that the targeted person or entity is under investigation elsewhere for terrorist activity.

Officials said searches require subpoenas and are based on statutory mandates and related executive orders.

Snow said the program is something he is proud of and that has made a real difference. "President Bush has made it clear that keeping Americans safe must be our number one priority," the secretary said. "This is a program that works, that makes Americans and the world safer."

The White House press secretary said today the finance-tracking program "helped capture Hambali, who was responsible for the Bali bombing which killed more than 2,000 people" and that it "helped identify a Brooklyn man convicted on terrorism-related charges last year." Press reports identified the man as Uzair Paracha, who agreed to launder $200,000 for al-Qaida through a Pakistan bank.

Snow frequently speaks publicly about work Treasury does to interrupt terrorists' money transactions, but he called a breaking news article by The New York Times detailing SWIFT's involvement "a great disappointment" because it gives terrorists information that could help them evade detection. Government officials asked Times editors not to publish the article.

"We have listened closely to the administration's arguments for withholding this information and given them the most serious and respectful consideration," said Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times. But he said administration access to such financial data "is a matter of public interest."

Snow said that, since its inception just after September 11, the program's scope - both geographically and in terms of the amount of information requested - has narrowed. Specifically, he said queries on "intra-country" transactions have declined in favor of country-to-country transactions.

In a statement, SWIFT said it "negotiated with the U.S. Treasury over the scope and oversight of the subpoenas" and that it had received assurances as to the confidentiality of any data produced as a result of the subpoenas.

Levey said auditors at SWIFT can stop any inquiry and that outside auditor Booz Allen Hamilton has reported only one instance of a search being done that should not have been done, a case that resulted in the removal of an employee from such work.

Source: U.S. Department of State