First the words, then the money. While the long ears of American espionage eavesdropped on the telephone conversations of half the world, the long arm of the CIA would also have counted the banknotes traveling from one side of the ocean to the other.
The news was published by Wall Street Journal e New York Times and relaunched by Le Monde. The CIA would have accumulated a huge amount of information on international money transfers through money transfer services.
To obtain the information, the CIA allegedly operated under the umbrella of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law adopted after the September 11 attacks and which allowed the NSA to collect the telephone conversations of practically every American. As in the case of the National Security Agency, the massive collection of financial transactions was authorized by the national security court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The CIA, an espionage agency that operates abroad, cannot directly deal with American citizens, but can conduct operations on the national territory if there are international reasons. The program effectively shows that all spy agencies, not just the NSA, use the same legal framework to obtain information.
In this case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would have authorized the FBI to work with the CIA to collect large amounts of data on international economic transactions, including those of US citizens, as part of the agency's counterterrorism investigations.
The information, provided by Western Union - which collaborated with the CIA after the attacks on the Twin Towers - or by other American companies specializing in money transfers, includes transactions made abroad, those to and from the United States, but not those within the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. In some cases, details such as a Social Security number would be present, which can be used to tie a specific financial asset to an individual. Aspect, the latter, which has raised some controversy on respect for privacy.
The CIA declined to comment on the program, but said the operations are legal and overseen by Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
