Stuart A. Levey

SWIFT

Accessing the database at SWIFT - an international organization that serves as a communication network for financial institutions and carries around 12 million instructions for financial transactions per day - had been a data mecca sought by U.S. officials since the 1990s.

After 9/11, the public mood seemed ripe for such a move. Shortly after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, President Bush used powers authorized to him under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allowed him to "investigate, regulate or prohibit" foreign financial transactions associated with "an unusual and extraordinary threat." With Bush's support, the Treasury obtained monthly subpoenas of the SWIFT database, which included customers' names and bank accounts. The information was stored, and shared with the CIA and FBI.

The activity took place behind closed doors without public knowledge. In 2006, despite urgings from the government, the New York Times went public with the story.

Levey defended the program, reiterating repeatedly that the department implemented tight controls on how it searched the database and investigated suspects. Representatives from SWIFT's auditors, Booz Allen Hamilton, were allowed to monitor any government searches and raise concerns whenever they wished. "It is not 'data mining,' or trolling through the private financial records of Americans," said Levey "It is not a 'fishing expedition,' but rather a sharp harpoon aimed at the heart of terrorist activity."

When the news of government access of SWIFT records broke, Levey pointed to one instance where an inappropriate search occurred and the search was automatically halted. Levey used the story to assure the public that there were effective internal government controls on the data. But Levey had no way of knowing how many Americans' data had been mined by the program. "I don't know the exact number, but it's at least tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of searches," said Levey.

In September 2006, the Belgian government, where SWIFT is headquartered, ruled the U.S. subpoenas of the SWIFT database was a violation of privacy laws. But a SWIFT spokesman told the Washington Post that "the status of the program is unchanged" shortly after the ruling. The U.S. agreed to only subpoena specific targets, let SWIFT supervise the transfer of information, while outside auditors would monitor the government's searches.

Iran

Iran's nuclear ambitions became a nuisance for President Bush. By 2006, sanctions, which prohibited any U.S. company or individual engaged in transactions with black-listed Iranian businesses, weren't necessarily stopping other countries from doing business with Iran. Plus, worldwide organizations established to stop Iran's nuclear growth had very little enforcement power.

In January 2006, Levey read a local newspaper article while in Bahrain about a Swiss bank's decision to sop business with Tehran, and the germ of an idea was born. Ambitiously, Levey set out to convince banks around the world to do the same, arguing that banks doing business with Iran ran the risk of having clientele that launder money and helped fund nuclear projects.

The Treasury blacklisted other banks and urged other nations to do the same. The rationale was that Iran didn't follow standard international banking practices.

"Stuart Levey's war is like 'Charlie Wilson's War,'" said an unidentified U.S. official to the New York Times in reference to a former Texas congressman's push for Afghanistan policy changes. "It's the most direct and aggressive stuff we've got going. It delivers."

Some bankers have claimed the U.S. is threatening banks to sever ties with Iran, but it's a charge Bush Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson denied. "We never threaten," said Paulson. "We talk about how important it is not to violate the rules and engage in illicit transactions." According to the Times, foreign bankers insisted that threats were always implicit.

As of November 2008, 80 banks from France to Germany to Malaysia and Bahrain had significantly decreased business with Iran. Even China has cut back on its financial dealings with Iran.

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