Germans in Hysterics Over Terrorist Money Tracking Program
In the last few days, the German media and German politicians have been on an angry rampage against America’s Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP). The cause for their agitation are reports that the EU plans to continue permitting U.S. intelligence agencies access to some of the bank transfer data stored by the inter-bank network SWIFT.
“In a ‘blitz’ action,” the margin of maneuver of U.S. terror-investigators is supposed to have been “massively extended.” The talk is of “highly-sensitive bank data” and of “American snoops [Schnüfflern]” who will be permitted “to spy on the entire range of transactions.” There is supposedly no dependable legal basis for the program and one “fears abuse.” All of the above according to Spiegel Online in an article titled “EU Allows the U.S. to Spy on Bank Accounts”.
On the nightly news on Germany’s ZDF public television, star news presenter Klaus Kleber felt that it was relevant to inform his audience that the SWIFT server in the USA is located “right nearby” the CIA headquarters. ZDF’s “terrorism expert” Elmar Theveßen could placidly affirm that only a single arrest had ever been facilitated by the program.
Horst Seehofer, governor of Bavaria and head of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), describes the EU concessions as an “absolute abomination [Unding]” and a “scandal.” Guido Westerwelle, chair of Germany’s economically liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), deems the TFTP to be “completely unacceptable” and has demanded that “the project must be stopped.” Peter Schaar, Germany’s federal commissioner for data protection, believes that “the Americans” will in the future also be monitoring bank transfers from Hamburg to Cologne. Green Party politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit went so far as to warn of a “putsch” against the project in the European parliament. Old habits die hard.
Even for German standards, it is remarkable how unscrupulously falsehoods are being fired off at readers and television viewers. What an amazing concentration of paranoia, hysteria, and ignorance.
The TFTP is a program that the U.S. established in 2001 with Belgium, Spain, and other European countries, in order to trace the money flows of terror networks. The program was initially kept secret. No laws were broken and extensive precautionary measures were taken in order to assure that civil rights would not be violated. A super power’s military might is no help to it in the fight against terror networks. The conflict is not about destroying armies, but rather terror cells. The challenge is to identify the latter. In this connection, intelligence on money flows -– on the origins of payments that known or suspected terrorists receive, or on the destination of payments from known terror sponsors –- is of existential importance. Thanks to TFTP, it has been possible to uncover the ties between potential terrorists and their sponsors by following money flows.
Observers with long memories will be aware that the earliest precursor of this program was implemented during Argentina’s “dirty war” against leftist subversion.
Financial “dragnet” techniques were later refined in Germany during that country’s fight against the “Red Army Faction” terrorist group and its allies.
I sometimes think that the outraged objectors are trying to convince the public of their own importance by implying that the CIA is interested in them. Last night while channel surfing I heard one German promi say that he admired Bruce Sprinsteen’s courage in criticizing the Bush administration. Yeah, he could have wound up in prison like so many other entertainers. Far too many Gemans who are ignorant, superficial, and self-aggrandizing get air time in Germany. The average German rarely has a chance to get the facts.
They should show us how unhappy they are by withdrawing from NATO and relieving us of our security treaty obligations.
On the one hand, it’s good to know that the dumbing down phenomenon is not just happening here in the good ol’ USA. Now that I think about it, I’m paying for that darned teleprompter too and I’d like my money back.
Regarding actions to watch transfers between banks to find out who is funding terrorists and where they might be, I have always assumed this was being done. And hooray. I am not sure all the reasons the Germans are upset about this program and perhaps it is the way they found out. Likewise, I am not sure why the New York Times thought it was their news to report but it was an indication of their level of partisanship.
I hope the program continues, in America we seem to have a president who is confused about our friends and enemies. It does not sound like the TFTP suffers from the same confusion.
What TFTP does is no different than what ha been done in the US for years. We have been tracking ALL checks that clear through the Federal Reserve system. Through very sophisticated software it is possible to follow laundered money back to its source with a high degree of confidence. Here it has been used against the drug trade and political corruption, tax cheats, and more recently to track terrorist fund raising.
If there is one area where the US excels, it is in technology to track back multiple layers of contacts and transaction to come up with a picture of who is affiliated with whom.
The concern by the European media about analyzing SWIFT data may be they may be worried some of their tax dodges may be discovered. The US has reason to believe there are hundreds of Americans with undeclared Swiss bank accounts, no doubt gleaned from interbank transactions. It may be TFTP will exple more than just terorist illegalities.
Der Spiegel is the leftist lefty news outlet. I,too, would like to know how they got the information. Regardless, it is Spiegel’s sop to Islam; they are trying to buy future “marks” that they can use when the need arises.
Without any form of financial tracking, terrorists can really become invisible. At least this way we can pick them out among innocents.
I guess the left in Germany would rather have more dead Germans, Italians, Spanish, etc than dare confront terrorists.
I guess the left in Germany would rather have more dead Germans, Italians, Spanish, etc than dare confront terrorists.
That about sums it all up in a nutshell. The Germans’ “jewellery” has been stored in a Wahhabi vault where the Arab guards sing “Arabien ueber Alles”
We allow the police to patrol the streets, and what keeps us safe is not that they don’t have guns, it’s that the police are motivated to protect us. The same principle applies to the gathering of information for law enforcement purposes. What keeps us safe is not that the police can’t know everything about us, it’s that their entire mission is to protect us.
The idea that surveillance as such poses a threat has no more truth than the idea that guns always lead to danger.
Philosophically, the error is in denying the existence of self-correcting, purposeful, goal-directed action. By categorizing human action as essentially deterministic, like the cascading of dominoes, it becomes plausible that one day a series of incidental events might somehow cause law protectors to turn into criminals.
If anyone actually believes that the US government is snooping through every financial transaction from here to the South Pole, I got a bridge I wanna sell ya.
The massive, 20 man 9-11 operation cost less than $500,000 to execute. That amount of money can be carried in a suitcase and withdrawn from a bank in Abu Dhabi as pocket change.
No, the reason is the same as the reason for EVERYTHING the federal government does: To steal more money and restrict personal privacy and freedom.
The real reason the pols are upset is that this program tracks ALL transactions. Even the bribes the pols are trying to hide.
While catching terrs is important, it’s not nearly as important as getting stolen monies to a safe place.
the us can use the information for industrial espionage aswell.. think about airbus an boing…
big brother is watching you…and now us europeans aswell!