No country is an island, either....

Scott McClellan today:

That's the difference between us and others. When it comes to human rights, there is no greater leader than the United States of America, and we show that by holding people accountable when they break the law or they violate human rights. And we show that by supporting the advance of freedom and democracy and supporting those in countries that are having their human rights denied or violated, like North Korea. We show that by liberating people in Afghanistan and Iraq, some 50 million people. And no one has done more when it comes to human rights than the United States of America.

Jack Straw and the European Union, however, beg to differ:

The European Union cited possible "violations of international law" by the United States in requesting that the Bush administration clarify media reports and "allay parliamentary and public concerns" about secret CIA prisons and the transporting of al Qaeda suspects in Europe, according to a letter from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The brief letter, written by Straw because the United Kingdom currently holds the E.U. presidency, makes no accusations and carefully refers only to media characterizations. It does not mention the myriad investigations launched by governments and European institutions since The Washington Post disclosed last month a secret CIA prison system operating in Eastern European and other countries. The British government has not released the letter, but it was provided by diplomatic sources.

And the response of the Bush Administration? Precisely what one would expect:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to give allies in Europe a response next week to their pressure over Washington's treatment of terrorism suspects: back off.

For almost a month, the United States has been on the defensive, refusing to deny or confirm media reports the United States has held prisoners in secret in Eastern Europe and transported detainees incommunicado across the continent.

The European Union has demanded that Washington address the allegations to allay fears of illegal U.S. practices. The concerns are rampant in among the European public and parliaments, already critical of U.S. prisoner-abuse scandals in Iraq and Guantanamo, Cuba.

But Rice will shift to offense when she visits Europe next week, in a strategy that has emerged in recent days and been tested by her spokesman in public and in her private meetings with European visitors.

She will remind allies they themselves have been cooperating in U.S. operations and tell them to do more to win over their publics as a way to deflect criticism directed at the United States, diplomats and U.S. officials said.

Which may be easier said than done. This issue has not been much noticed on this side of the Pond; but in Europe, they are angry:

The issue is steeped with emotion, given the high level of anger in Europe at reports that American interrogators have tortured prisoners in Iraq; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other places. The stakes are high for many European governments, facing impassioned questions from opposition politicians and human rights groups about just how much they knew about American actions.

"We need full disclosure by our government," Sir Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats in Britain, told BBC radio on Wednesday. "If, in fact, people are being moved from a jurisdiction where torture is illegal to a jurisdiction where torture is permissible, that seems to me to be wholly contrary to international law."

"If we are allowing facilities for aircraft carrying out these actions," he added, "we are at the very least facilitating, and we may even be complicit in it."

....
The issue has careered around Europe. In Munich, prosecutors have opened an investigation into the abduction of a German citizen who says the C.I.A. flew him from Macedonia to Afghanistan early in 2004. There he was interrogated for five months before being released, he said.

A Macedonian official said the German, Khaled Masri, had left Macedonia of his own accord. But others are skeptical.

"What choice do you have when you are the size of Macedonia?" said Saso Ordanoski, a leading political commentator and editor of the weekly political magazine Forum. "Can you say no?"

The LATimes notes there are "investigations in half a dozen countries" underway. And there is that pesky matter that Scottie didn't mention, the one of "international law":

The Council of Europe is investigating the allegations in its role as the continent's chief human-rights watchdog, and the EU has raised the issue with Washington. Clandestine lockups would violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The EU's justice and home affairs commissioner, Franco Frattini, also suggests the "black sites" violate the 25-nation bloc's founding principles that include the rule of law, so a member state assisting the CIA in this activity could be punished with the loss of EU voting rights.

I don't think Sec. Rice's "tough talk" is going to make this issue go away. The diplomats are not the only ones concerned about this.

It may well be that the days of our "Lone Ranger" foreign policy are be coming to an end.

One can only pray.