Europe is currently investigating allegations that the US has a network of secret prisons in Eastern Europe.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will not confirm or deny the existance of the prisons, but defended the US practice of locking people up indefinitely in secret prisons that may or may not exist for things they could possibly do in the future.

Rice defended the modern inquisition known as the War on Terror using words that should deeply trouble anyone rational:

"You can’t allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them, because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die," she told the USA Today daily.

As the documentary "The Power of Nightmares" eloquently states, there is no way to prove yourself innocent of a crime you have not yet committed.

And as America's prisoners don't even get the right to a trial, the US doesn't even provide the world with an explanation of why they think the suspects are likely to commit acts of terror.

Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, issues a blanket claim that "The United States in its actions does not break US law," implying that only US law is important and international law is irrelevant.

Perhaps the countries of the world should get together and introduce temporary trade sanctions against the US to give the Bush administration a wakeup call. The sanctions would hurt all participants economically, but how much lawlessness and human rights abuse are permitted before something is done?

Source: Daily Times, BBC News