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Belgium Rules Sifting of Bank Data Illegal
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The Bush administration has called its secret international banking surveillance program a vital tool in uncovering terrorist networks. When newspapers first reported the program's existence in June, President Bush called the disclosure "disgraceful."
The program was begun without congressional or court approval shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. With SWIFT's cooperation, U.S. investigators tapped records from the cooperative's banks, a total of millions of transactions, looking for suspicious patterns and links to terrorists.
A SWIFT spokesman said Thursday that "the status of the program is unchanged."
A European Union working group that oversees data protection is investigating SWIFT's transfers of data and is to release its report in November. After a meeting this week in Brussels, the group said it has "immediate concerns about the lack of transparency which has surrounded these arrangements."
Verhofstadt said SWIFT was "in a conflicting situation between American and European laws." But he said the cooperative "made several evaluation mistakes during the executing of the American subpoenas. From the very beginning, SWIFT should have been aware that fundamental European laws should also be respected."
The prime minister added, "Fundamental differences exist between the E.U. and the U.S.A. concerning legislations and the principles governing the treatment of personal data, mainly in the domain of the level of protection, which is higher in Europe. . . .
"SWIFT is also clearly responsible because they made all the crucial decisions regarding data communication" to the U.S. Treasury, "behind the back of its 7,800 clients."
The report faulted SWIFT for not notifying European authorities of the program from its inception.
SWIFT said its "compliance was legal, limited, targeted, protected, audited and overseen." It added, "SWIFT also did its utmost to comply with the European data privacy principles of proportionality, purpose and oversight."
Staff writer Dafna Linzer in New York and researcher Corinne Gavard in Paris contributed to this report.
