Terrorism Finance Tracking Program continues to generate leads despite data shortage

Jul 9, 2010 13:21 GMT  ·  By
Terrorists arrested in Norway on a lead from the Terrorism Finance Tracking Program
   Terrorists arrested in Norway on a lead from the Terrorism Finance Tracking Program

An U.S. official claims that three al-Qaeda suspects arrested by Norwegian authorities yesterday were identified thanks to a lead generated by the Terrorism Finance Tracking Program. This automated system scans through SWIFT transaction data in order to detect signs of terrorist activity financing.

On Thursday Norwegian authorities announced the arrest of three men, two in Norway and one in Germany, who are suspected of being part of an international terrorist network and had ties to Saleh al-Somali, a high ranking al-Qaeda member killed last year. All of them had permanent residences in Norway and police had information according to which they were working on building explosives.

It's not clear what the intended target of their plan was, but they were part of the same network as the terrorist who unsuccessfully tried to bomb the New York subway and the UK terrorist cell which conspired to blow up a Manchester shopping center. According to the New York Times, Norwegian authorities were forced perform the arrests earlier than planned, due to concerns that the Associated Press, which learned of the investigation, might publish a story about it, thus tipping off the suspects.

The EUObserver reports that during a conference call with journalists in Brussels, U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey said: "I can tell you the 'Terrorism Finance Tracking Program' (TFTP) provided support to the Norwegian investigation of that al Qaeda threat.” The TFTP was created following the 9/11 attacks in order to inspect SWIFT transaction data for trails of terrorism financing.

The program was suspended after the European Union expressed concerns for the privacy of its citizen who's transaction information was being transferred to the US in bulk. Since then SWIFT changed it's infrastructure to allow European data to remain on the continent and US and EU officials started work on a more restrictive agreement. The new treaty received a positive vote in the European Parliament today and will go into effect later this year.

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