No kidding, hardly unexpected, nor complicated (e.g. anyone wiring over a certain threshold from a MENA country gets flagged). I know int'l students who were questioned after paying fees, etc.

You'd think by now people would be aware of how many linked databases there are in this world (banking, airline bookings, etc) and the infinite potential for surveillance/datamining in systems that log everything and store data forever.

But yes of course, let the requisite faux-shock and fingerpointing continue.

Europe is the big hypocrite here, yes. On one hand, there are the governments and the EU commission who gladly do what USA asks them to. On the other, there is the European street and the EU parliament both decidedly against this stuff. Solution: have the US do the laundry. If nicked, we feign dismay. The problem of Guantanamo is that it's so public. No wonder Europe is set on getting it closed. bah.

Kha.

Yes, the problem with Guantanamo is that is indeed so very garishly public.

And now the bloody SWIFT thing, public and oh my, the Belgian security services are shocked and dismayed. Inconvenient, this publicity.

Well, yes, all the shock is pretty stupid considering the USG effectively told everyone they were doing this at big international symposia three or four years ago.

Back in, IIRC, 2002-2003, the USG went absolutely nuts over the hawala system precisely because transactions could not be monitored. You'd have to be pretty bloody clueless not to conclude from that they were monitoring transactions in the formal banking sector.

Anyway, all this angst over these "security leaks" presupposes that these terrorist groups have all the sophistication of mildly-retarded twelve-year-olds. Any terrorist group worth its salt must have assumed that formal banking and communications channels have been monitored all along and acted accordingly.

i wonder what the USG, in all its wisdom, thinks of my various financial transactions? north africa, southeastern europe (the less-than-greek part), etc etc...

speaking of less-than-mainstram financial transactions, my family hosted an exchange student from morocco for a year. he came with bricks of hard currency stuffed in his socks, shoes, and other, less savoury places. his parents would mail him magazines periodically with currency slipped between the pages. i'll leave the financial experts to explain why he had to move large amounts of currency out of maroc through such means.

heh. this also reminds me of working the currency black market in albania. good times. those poor money traders sure were starved for dollars and euros.

Currency controls for citizens, capping hard currency transfer outgoing, that's the reason for your exchange student's odd behaviour. Of course everyone knows about it.

Re Anon: precisely.

I've seen that movie where the guy was "shocked", and I know what happens next. A dude comes walks in with a stack of money on a tray and says "Your winnings, sir." If only it would happen in the middle of a Congressional hearing.