Wall Stereet Technology Belgium Probes U.S. Bank Record Searches (Reuters)
The Belgian government has initiated a probe into the legality of a U.S. program to monitor financial transaction data passed through Brussels-based international banking cooperative SWIFT. By Reuters Wall Street & Technology June 29, 2006 BRUSSELS, June 26 - Belgium's government is investigating the legality of counter-terrorism searches by U.S. officials of thousands of private records held by Brussels-based international bank cooperative SWIFT, a spokeswoman said. U.S. media last week reported that the U.S. Treasury Department had since Sept. 11, 2001 been tapping into records of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) for evidence of potential activity by terror groups. Belgian Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx learned of the searches from the media and asked Belgium's national security services and counter-fraud office to produce reports into the matter before the end of the week, a ministry spokeswoman said. "She wants to know if these actions taken by the U.S. and SWIFT are okay under Belgian law," Annaik De Voghel told Reuters on Monday. Security officials will discuss the issue later this week, she added. A spokesman for European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs Franco Frattini said it did not appear that the European Union's executive body had any competence in the matter. "At first sight there is no European legislation covering this type of transfer and (it is) therefore a matter of national law," he said. Belgium's central bank sought to distance itself from the affair, saying in a statement on Sunday that its role as head of the oversight body for SWIFT was limited. "The monitoring of SWIFT's activities that do not affect financial stability is not a matter for the oversight group and therefore the U.S. Treasury subpoenas of SWIFT were outside the purview of central bank oversight," the statement said. "The oversight group does not have the authority either to approve or prohibit SWIFT's compliance," it added. SWIFT is owned and controlled by nearly 8,000 commercial banks in 20 countries. The U.S. Treasury subpoenaed data from it to get information on wire transfers and cash movements into and out of the United States. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday defended the program, run in conjunction with the CIA, as a legal and "absolutely essential" weapon in the "war on terror", the New York Times reported. By: Emma Davis Copyright 2006 Reuters. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/1dTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> =============== Group Moderator: [EMAIL PROTECTED] page at http://magazine.sorabia.net for more informations about current situation in Serbia http://www.sorabia.net Slusajte GLAS SORABIJE nas talk internet-radio (Serbian Only) http://radio.sorabia.net Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sorabia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
