Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
* Telecommunication (SWIFT), a not-for-profit cooperative.
*
* This system for transferring foreign exchange deposits and loans began
* actual operation in May 1977 and by 1990 had 1,812 members, and connected
* 3,049 banks and securities industry participants in eight-four countries.
*
* In 1993 SWIFT began asking users of its messaging system to include a
* purpose of payment in all messages, as well as payers, payees, and
* intermediaries. This type of arrangement would allow NSA computers
* to use keyword monitoring to scan for any names in which they were
* interested.


! FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, Senate Judiciary Committee, June 4, 1997
!
! NOT THAT LONG AGO, NO ONE PERCEIVED THAT TELEPHONE SYSTEMS COULD BECOME
! UNTAPPABLE, THE NECESSITY FOR STRONG PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN LOCAL, STATE,
! FEDERAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS MORE URGENT.


* Electronic Privacy Information Center, http://www.epic.org
*
* "As a means of espionage, writs of assistance and general warrants
* are but puny instruments of tyranny and oppression when compared
* with wiretapping." ---Mr. Justice Brandeis, 277 U.S. 438 (6/4/1928)
*
*
* European Union and FBI launch a global surveillance system
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