Law of the Jungle

Exposed today is the treatment of Binyan Mohamed at the hands of the CIA, and it appears, by consent - MI6.

Now there can be no doubt that the security services have had their work cut out over recent years, and have had an unenviable task post 9/11 and 7/7 to ensure that the bombers do not caste indiscriminate carnage again for their higher purpose. All well and good so far, and thank heavens for the work they do. Yet it appears that the rendition saga has plummeted depths of depravity for which no civilized nations should dare ever be proud. Today's papers are full of allegations of torture straight out of the Bad Boy Book of Uncivilised Treatment, the pages of which are normally fingered by the grubby hands of despotic regimes.

I am not normally one for inquiries, but it does seem here that one is needed here - with answers - if we are ever to be able to hold our heads up high again and talk to some higher purpose in the international arenas of the UN the next time some runaway state brutalises its population. At least one person in Harare must be lapping up every sordid morsal of this story this morning?

In short, we cannot decry bad treatment elsewhere if we turn a blind eye when we descend to it ourselves. That, alas, is the descent into the law of the jungle.