Suskind: Western Union Gave Transfer Info to Feds

Posted on Jun 21, 2006

In the wake of 9/11, the parent company of Western Union gave the FBI information on financial transactions and wire transfers, Ron Suskind charges in his new book, “The One Percent Doctrine.”

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N.Y. Times:

...In “The One Percent Doctrine,” Mr. Suskind discloses that First Data Corporation — one of the world’s largest processors of credit card transactions and the parent company of Western Union — began cooperating with the F.B.I. in the wake of 9/11, providing information on financial transactions and wire transfers from around the world. The huge data-gathering operation in some respects complemented the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program (secretly authorized by Mr. Bush months after the Sept. 11 attacks), which monitored specific conversations as well as combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might lead to terrorism suspects.

Despite initial misgivings on the part of Western Union executives, Mr. Suskind reports, the company also worked with the C.I.A. and provided real-time information on financial transactions as they occurred.

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