Difference between revisions 118125647 and 118125648 on dewiki

{{sections|date=June 2007}}
The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program is a US governmental program to access the [[SWIFT]] transaction database, revealed by ''[[The New York Times]]'' in June 2006. It is part of the [[Bush administration]]'s "[[Global War on Terrorism]]". Based in Belgium, SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) establish common standards for financial transactions worldwide.

== Introduction ==

(contracted; show full)ystem, which has made this program incredibly valuable."<ref>Snow, John W. "[http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/4339.htm Letter to the Editors of The New York Times by Treasury Secretary Snow]", [[June 26]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[June 26]], [[2006]]</ref>  Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on July 11, 2006, [[Stuart Levey]], the Department of the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, stated
 the following::

<blockquote> "Since being asked to oversee this program by then-Secretary Snow and then-Deputy Secretary Bodman almost two years ago, I have received the written output from this program as part of my daily intelligence briefing. For two years, I have been reviewing that output every morning. I cannot remember a day when that briefing did not include at least one terrorism lead from this program. Despite attempts at secrecy, terrorist facilitators have continued to use the international banking system to send money to one another, even after September 11th. This disclosure compromised one of our most valuable programs and will only make our efforts to track terrorist financing - and to prevent terrorist attacks - harder. Tracking terrorist money trails is difficult enough without having our sources and methods reported on the front page of newspapers."<ref>Levey, Stuart "[http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp05.htm Testimony of Stuart Levey, Under Secretary Terrorism and Financial Intelligence U.S. Department of the Treasury Before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations]", [[July 11]], [[2006]]. Accessed [[July 23]], [[2006]]</ref></blockquote>

On [[October 22]], [[2006]], Public Editor of ''The New York Times'' [[Byron Calame]]  stated that he didn't think the article should have been published. reversing his strong support of the ''Times'' in his [[June 2]] column.  "I haven't found any evidence in the intervening months that the surveillance program was illegal.... The lack of appropriate oversight—to catch any abuses in the absence of media attention—was a key reason I originally support(contracted; show full)</div>

[[Category:Counter-terrorism]]
[[Category:Anti-terrorism policy of the United States]]
[[Category:George W. Bush administration controversies]]
[[Category:United States Department of the Treasury]]
[[Category:Payment systems]]
[[Category:Stock market]]