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 said, adding security officials would discuss the issue later this week.
[...]
European Parliament lawmakers demanded more information and said the reports, in the wake of allegations of secret U.S. "renditions" of terrorism suspects in Europe, again suggested Washington was going too far in its security policies.
"This could be another case of citizens' privacy being invaded. We are already familiar with the illegal role of the CIA in so-called rendition flights," said Jan Marinus Wiersma, vice-president of the parliament's Socialist group.
"It appears that President (George W.) Bush has crossed the red line, abusing his executive powers as president," said Jean-Marie Cavada, a Liberal member of the parliament who is chairman of the civil liberties committee.
Earlier on Monday, Bush harshly criticized the press for revealing details of his government's use of the SWIFT records, while the Counterrorism blog noted this weekend that the program was actually publicly revealed in 2002 and is still mentioned on the UN's web site.
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