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We present Swift, a system that combines a novel scripting language called SwiftScript with a powerful runtime system based on CoG Karajan, Falkon, and Globus to allow for the concise specification, and reliable and efficient execution, of large loosely coupled computations. Swift adopts and adapts ideas first explored in the GriPhyN virtual data system, improving on that system in many regards. We describe the SwiftScript language and its use of XDTM to describe the logical structure of complex file system structures. We also present the Swift runtime system and its use of CoG Karajan, Falkon, and Globus services to dispatch and manage the execution of many tasks in parallel and grid environments. We describe application experiences and performance experiments that quantify the cost of Swift operations.