Fergie's Tech Blog

SWIFT: CIA's Secret UK Bank Trawl May Be Illegal

Alexi Mostrous and Ian Cobain write in The Guardian (UK):

A covert programme under which confidential information about British banking transactions is passed to the CIA with the full knowledge of the government may breach both British and European law, the Guardian has learned.

The information commissioner, who is responsible for enforcing the Data Protection Act, is investigating the arrangement, which has seen details of computerised transactions from around the world passed to the CIA in an attempt to spy on the financiers of jihadist terrorism.

The US government has acknowledged that the agency has been receiving international financial records from the Belgian-based co-operative which processes money transfers on behalf of the world's banks. The programme was launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Data handed over each year by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, includes the details of an estimated 4.6 million British banking transactions.

posted by Fergie @ 8/21/2006 09:47:00 AM