Counterterrorism Blog

European reaction to the New York Times revelations concerning US monitoring of SWIFT has been quite muted. There has been no public outcry, as was the case with reports on CIA renditions and allegations of secret prisons and interrogation centers in European countries. And Europe's financial and banker community appears largely unfazed by the NY Times report. While some European politicians were caught off guard by the New York Times story, and some called for immediate ‘investigations’ into what was going on, others quickly reassured their constituents that nothing was amiss. They were well aware of the practice, they said.

SWIFT is located in Belgium and provides important clearance house services for European and other overseas banks, often having nothing to do with the US. The Belgian National Bank acknowledged June 26th that it was aware of the arrangements between SWIFT and the US government. Swiss bank regulators also indicated that they have known about the program since the summer of 2002. The monitoring arrangements had been fully cleared with the Central Banks of the G10 countries that oversee SWIFT’s operations, they said. The G10, in turn, has delegated authority to the Belgian National Bank to oversee the financial integrity of SWIFT’s operations. In a press release the BNB indicated that its oversight did not extend to watching over the US monitoring operation, of which it was also aware.

In a separate development, the EU Commission also indicated that the arrangements between SWIFT and the US government did not violate any EU Law. EU Data Protection regulations do not extend to data transfers from private entities. EU officials also indicated that there was a specific exemption for data transfers related to national security.

The European press reaction was also quite muted. Press stories in Europe often expressed more amusement than concern. And more concern was expressed with what they perceived as a concerted challenge to a free press in the United States. That was the main theme, for example in a front page article in France's Le Monde, which dismissed the idea that there was any merit to Treasury Secretary Snow's objection that the NY Times article would result in European bankers' curtailing their cooperation with the program. Rather, Le Monde castigated the US Administration and what it termed "militant American conservatives" for attacking the New York Times with such vitriol.