Brussels, 09/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - A high-ranking US official said on Thursday 8 July that the US Terrorism Finance Tracking Program (TFTP), which uses banking data provided by Swift, had helped in the arrest on that same day of three people with links to Al-Qaeda, who were probably involved in the foiled bomb plots in New York and Manchester in 2009. The three - a Norwegian of Uighur origin aged 39, a 37-year-old Iraqi who arrived in Norway in 1999, and a 31-year-old Uzbek - were arrested for preparation of an act of terrorism, following a long period of surveillance, Norwegian police announced on Thursday. Two of the men were arrested in Norway, the third in Germany. “I can tell you that the TFTP provided support to the Norwegian investigation of that Al-Qaeda threat,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the US Treasury Department Stuart Levey in a press teleconference. “The arrests made today are a reminder that Europe is still a target for terrorist attacks,” he added. He went on to say that the TFTP had once again proved its usefulness, despite the fact that the US had not had access to Swift information since the end of January. “We have continued to try to generate leads … based on the data that we had at the end of 2009 as well as the data that continues to come from the US portion of the provider's data,” Levey explained, and he said the US administration was looking forward to full restoration of the TFTP from 1 August 2010. (B.C./transl.rt)