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The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) is a United States government program to access financial transactions on the international SWIFT network that was revealed by ''The New York Times'', ''The Wall Street Journal'' and ''The Los Angeles Times'' in June 2006. It was part of the Bush administration's War on Terrorism. After the covert action was disclosed, the so-called SWIFT-agreement was negotiated between the United States and the European Union. == Overview == A series of articles published on June 23, 2006, by the ''New York Times'',〔Lichtblau, Eric and Risen, James. "(Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror )", ''New York Times'', June 22, 2006. Accessed June 23, 2006.〕 the ''Wall Street Journal''〔Simpson, Glenn R. "(U.S. Treasury Tracks Financial Data In Secret Program )", ''Wall Street Journal'', June 22, 2006. Accessed June 23, 2006.〕 and the ''Los Angeles Times''〔Meyer, Josh and Miller, Greg. "(Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank Transfers )", ''Los Angeles Times''. June 22, 2006. Accessed June 23, 2006.〕 revealed that the United States government, specifically the Treasury and the CIA, had a program to access the SWIFT transaction database after the September 11th attacks. According to the June 2006 ''New York Times'' article, the program helped lead to the capture of an al-Qaeda operative known as Hambali in 2003, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombing, as well as helped identify a Brooklyn man convicted in 2005 for laundering money for an al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan. The Treasury Department and White House responded to the leak the day before it was published, and claimed that the leak damaged counterterrorism activities. They also referred to the program as the "Terrorist Finance Tracking Program" ("TFTP"), similar to the Terrorist Surveillance Program in the NSA wiretapping controversy.〔Blustein, Paul, Gellman, Barton, and Linzer, Dafna. "(Bank Records Secretly Tapped )", ''Washington Post'', June 23, 2006. Accessed June 23, 2006.〕 The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program was viewed by the Bush administration as another tool in the "Global War on Terrorism". The administration contends the program allows additional scrutiny that could prove instrumental in tracking transactions between terrorist cells. Some have raised concerns that this classified program might also be a violation of United States and European financial privacy laws, because individual search warrants to access financial data were not obtained in advance. In response to the claim that the program violates U.S. law, some have noted that the U.S. Supreme Court in ''United States v. Miller'' (1976) has ruled that there is not an expected right to privacy for financial transaction records held by third parties and that "the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the obtaining of information revealed to a third party and conveyed by him to Government authorities, even if the information is revealed on the assumption that it will be used only for a limited purpose and the confidence placed in the third party will not be betrayed".〔U.S. Supreme Court. (''United States v. Miller'', 425 U.S. 435 (1976) ), Argued January 12, 1976. Decided April 21, 1976. Accessed July 1, 2006.〕 Immediately following the disclosure, SWIFT released an official press statement asserting that they did give information to the United States in compliance with Treasury Department subpoenas, but claiming that "SWIFT received significant protections and assurances as to the purpose, confidentiality, oversight and control of the limited sets of data produced under the subpoenas".〔"(Swift Press Release on the Program ), ''Los Angeles Times'', June 22, 2006. Accessed June 23, 2006.〕 Belgium's central bank, the National Bank of Belgium, was exposed on June 27, 2006, to have known about the U.S. government's access to the SWIFT databases since 2002.〔(NBB 'aware' of Swift's actions since 2002 ), ''Expatica'', June 27, 2006. Accessed June 27, 2006.〕 Belgian Christian Democratic and Flemish party claimed on June 28, that the actions of the CIA with SWIFT were in breach with Belgian privacy laws.The Belgian parliamentary committee (''Comité I''), that deals with the workings of the Belgian State Security Service reported that SWIFT was indeed in violation with Belgian and European privacy laws. The New York branch of the Dutch Rabobank is said to deliver information on its European customers to the U.S. government, in contempt of European privacy laws. The Dutch Data Protection Authority claims that Dutch banks could face fines if they hand over data on their customers to the U.S. government. Consequently the European Union (EU) has obtained the possibility to send a high-ranking magistrate as High Representative of EU to United States of America for the Financing of Terrorism, in order to monitor the TFTP activities. This magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguière, has a permanent office in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Department of Treasury.〔Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, (Press Release - Hearings of SWIFT representatives and Judge Bruguière ), 8 April 2009〕 Disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden alleged the NSA was systematically undermining the SWIFT-agreement. No dementi was issued by the American side, and the European Parliament voted to suspend the agreement.〔(European Parliament Newsroom: MEPs call for suspension of EU-US bank data deal in response to NSA snooping, 23 October 2013 )〕 A suspension would however require the consent of a two-thirds majority of EU governments.〔(EUobserver: Merkel to seek intelligence rule book with US, 25 October 2013 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Terrorist Finance Tracking Program」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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