International

Six months or so ago it became clear that American secret services were being allowed access to details stored in the SWIFT databank, where details are held of cross-border cash transactions. The European Parliament today returns to the issue, while at the same time SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard is complaining that the question she put as long ago as last autumn "has yet to receive any kind of answer," adding that "the Commission and Council must use today's debate to make clear just what it is they have to hide."

The CIA can stick their noses unhindered into SWIFT's data traffic. Anyone with an Arabic-sounding surname who sends money to his or her family abroad is considered by the Americans to be a potential terrorist. But, says Liotard, it doesn't stop there: "A lot of migrants make use of currency exchanges such as Western Union, and it turns out that the US secret services stick their noses into these as well. Our questions to the Commission on this matter have been completely ignored. I hope that today we'll see some clarification. If not we'll have to think of some other way to approach the Commission for information."