U.S. Treasury Official Provides Details on Use of SWIFT Data to Pursue "Charities" (updated 7/14)

By Andrew Cochran

One comment at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday caught my attention: the top anti-terrorist financing official at the U.S. Treasury Department, Under Secretary Stuart Levey, testified (page 4), "The details remain classified, but the program has been instrumental in identifying and capturing terrorists and financiers and in rolling up a terrorist-supporting charity." In response to my inquiries across and outside government, a Treasury official provided new details to me today on the use of SWIFT data to pursue charities used to fund terrorists - I quote:

1. SWIFT data was important in tracking funding to a terrorist affiliated NGO, and identifying those in the NGO who were providing funds to terrorists. Local authorities raided and closed this NGO, disrupting a significant facilitation network.

2. The Treasury Department designated several branch offices of a Middle Eastern charity for providing support to Usama bin Laden and al Qaida. Using SWIFT data, Treasury found that post-designation, this charity's headquarters began routing its funds to several other al Qaida affiliated entities, apparently to avoid interdiction under US and UN sanctions. The U.S. Government is currently pressing the foreign government where this NGO is located to take appropriate action.

This information adds weight to the assertions by a group of CT experts, including Dennis Lormel, that the SWIFT program was very useful and that the NYT disclosure significantly harms counterterrorism efforts. I started this site, in part, to engage in such debates and discussions on counterterrorism policies and actions (e.g., Dennis' and Doug Farah's debate on Al Qaeda's role in the African diamond trade, first on the CT Blog last year). Victor Comras' June 23 post, "Reports of US Monitoring of SWIFT Transactions Are Not New: The Practice Has Been Known By Terrorism Financing Experts For Some Time," and Dennis Lormel's July 8 rebuttal, "Continued Debate over the SWIFT Disclosure by the New York Times," have been cited and quoted often, including at the Congressional hearing. You can see Victor's response to Under Secretary Levey's testimony, posted on July 11.

UPDATE, 7/14: See today's "Washington Post" article, "Watching Finances Of Terror Suspects Discussed in 2002," which discusses "several examples where government and industry officials have publicly described how counterterrorism agencies access financial records to track terrorists and shut down their funding." The information in Victor Comras' June 23 post is quoted (the reporter didn't cite this website, as he did the NYT about its role).

Also, I have not had time to try to determine the charities referred to in the information given to me by the Treasury official. We're open to suggestions.

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