Chasing Shadows

The CIA prison saga is turning into a wonderful example of the pathetic ness of the elite in Brussels. Elevating a rumour to the status of most important business. Franco Frattini has now joined in the debate with a hard man act.

The European Union's top justice official warned yesterday that any EU country found to have operated secret CIA prisons could lose its EU voting rights.

Apart from the fact that we have no idea whether the story is true or not, there are a couple of important points here. Firstly, Mr Frattini does not of course have the power to remove anyone’s voting rights. Secondly, it’s depressingly unsurprising that the EU get tough over an issue that might embarrass the USA and her allies. We have an organisation hell bent on being a rival to the USA and a left wing one at that. I know it was upsetting for socialists across Europe when the Soviet Union collapsed, but there is no need to try and take their place. So what was Mr Fattini basing his threats on?

Mr Frattini said the voting rights suspension would be justified under the EU's treaty, which stipulates that the bloc is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.

For those who have forgotten, those fundamental freedoms are actually a shopping list of left wing ideas, guaranteed to increase state power. As for liberty, the EU has absolutely no idea what the word means. In case any of them stumble across this page, it means the absence of coercion, especially by agents of the state. And Coercion my beloved Eurocrats is your Core Competency. Above all, the Brussels elite that are so keen to persecute whistleblowers and to abuse their powers to do so, are ill placed to lecture anyone on the concept of the Rule of Law.