CIA gathering data on global money transfers, say officials

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies such as Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States — under the same law the National Security Agency (NSA) uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records, according to current and former government officials.

The CIA financial-records programme, which the officials said was authorised by provisions in the Patriot Act and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, offers evidence that the extent of government data-collection programmes is not fully known and that the national debate over privacy and security may be incomplete.

Some details of the programme are not clear. But it was confirmed by several officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is classified.

The data do not include purely domestic transfers or bank-to-bank transactions, said officials. Another, while not acknowledging the programme, suggested that the surveillance court had imposed rules withholding the identity of any American from the data the CIA sees, requiring a tie to a terrorist organisation before a search may be run and mandating that the information be discarded after a certain number of years.

The court has also imposed several similar rules on the NSA call-log programme.

Officials also said more than one other bulk-collection programme have yet to come to light.

“The intelligence community collects bulk data in a number of different ways under multiple authorities,” said an intelligence official.

Mr Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the CIA, declined to confirm whether such a programme exists, but said the agency conducts lawful intelligence collection which is aimed at foreign — not domestic — activities and that it is subject to extensive oversight.

“The CIA protects the nation and upholds the privacy rights of Americans by ensuring its intelligence-collection activities are focused on acquiring foreign intelligence and counter-intelligence in accordance with US laws,” he said.

Mr Juan Zarate, a White House and Treasury official under former President George W Bush, said that, unlike telecommunications information, there has generally been less sensitivity regarding the collection of financial data, in part because the government already collects information on large transactions under the Bank Secrecy Act. “There is a long-standing legal baseline for the US government to collect financial information,” he said about the crackdown on terrorist financing. He did not acknowledge the CIA programme.

Orders for business records from the surveillance court generally prohibit recipients from talking about them.

A spokeswoman for Western Union, which handles money transfers abroad, did not directly address whether it had been ordered to turn over records in bulk, but said the company complies with legal requirements to provide information.

“We collect consumer information to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws,” she said. “In doing so, we also protect consumers’ privacy.”

In recent months, there have been hints in congressional testimony, declassified documents and litigation that the NSA programme — which was disclosed by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor — is not unique in collecting records involving Americans.

The Obama administration and many lawmakers have defended the NSA programme as crucial in protecting US national security and helping thwart past militant plots.

They have also said the programme is carefully overseen by Congress and the courts. Agencies