1. SWIFT was founded as a 'Belgian Cooperative' in the 1970s by an ex American Express executive and grew at a rate unprecedented for its era, its first 'intern

1. SWIFT was founded as a 'Belgian Cooperative' in the 1970s by an ex American Express executive and grew at a rate unprecedented for its era, its first 'international center of operations' was located in Virginia, co-opened by the then-governor, and nearly co-located with CIA HQ. EU authorities have confirmed that, despite political backlash and a 'SWIFT 2' nominally designed to resolve the problem, every single SWIFT transaction since at least 2001 (read: forever) has been provided in full to the US. 2. The Israeli business AMDOCS with alleged Mossad links is an outsourced and hosted billing provider for telecommunication carriers, whose client list includes large portions of the developed world. Just sayin'.