CIA PRISON PROBE: CAUSE CELEBRE OR MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING?

MEPs are gearing up for what could be their Woodward & Bernstein moment: when, like the Washington Post journalists who broke the Watergate scandal, they get to the bottom of the shocking allegations of European complicity in the United States' abduction, transport and torture of terrorist suspects.

This week Parliament heard the allegations reiterated by Human Rights Watch, a world-renowned organisation with substantial clout and credibility. If proved true, Europe really should hang its head in shame. Arguably, it would make those found guilty worse than the Americans. At least, the US has openly admitted since the September 11, 2001 attacks that it does not believe terrorist suspects should be dealt with through normal criminal procedures, with all the legal safeguards that entails.

Europe has officially taken a very different line, balking from using the term 'war on terror' and insisting that anti-terrorist efforts be waged within the rule of law and fully respecting individual human rights. Were this to be exposed as a hypocritical charade, any moral authority Europeans claim to have on human rights questions around the world would go up in a puff of...