A confederacy of dunces

While sitting around melting the polar ice caps and putting puppies in the blender, this item turned up.

It has entirely to do with the EU expressing bitterness at the US and punishing Poland and Romania to do it. I suppose they see no irony in this at all, that they want to dictate to the US, or their own member states, and yet still expect them to furnish them with the action that their assumed wisdom and authority comes from. AP:

«EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini warned Monday any EU nation found to have operated secret CIA prisons could have their EU voting rights suspended.

"I would be obliged to propose to the Council (of EU Ministers) serious consequences, including the suspension of voting rights in the Council," Frattini said at a counter-terrorism conference.»

The EU already gave up on their investigation of the matter, having found nothing meaningful, but apparently that’s not enough for these narcissists. They actually made the statement at a counter-terrorism conference. Brussels being whit it is, suspending a nation's vote is effectively an economic sanction.

Indeed the laughs just keep on coming. This headline is especially telling:

EU countries warned over alleged secret CIA jails

«Franco Frattini, the EU justice and security commissioner, said the countries would face "serious consequences" if reports prove true that the U.S. intelligence agency has been running clandestine detention centres in Europe to interrogate suspects in Washington's war on terror.»

Like the source of the Abu-Ghreib business which was caused by the transparency and reporting of the US military, they want the US to blow what is likely an ongoing anti-terrorist operation itself. Very bright, and very encouraging indeed. Let me repeat this: they made the statement at a counter-terrorism conference.

As far as opacity of power is concerned, just who IS this mysterious ‘Europe’ anyway? Isn’t it made up of member states who are scolding themselves? It also goes to the root of the whole problem they have: the democratic deficit: some member states are forcing themselves on member states that are nearly as populous, and certainly more geopolitically relevant for suicidal and emotional reasons.

Further from the CBC:

«The secret detention system was conceived in the first months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the newspaper said.»

This clearly attests to their ineffectual “shaking their tiny fist” nature. If they’re so good at dealing with terror, how is it that detention facilities were being operated on their patch for 4 years without the EU knowing?