It appears that if the United States Congress does not want to step up and investigate alleged wrongdoing by the CIA, then the rest of the world might do it instead. I would be angry that everyone is suddenly picking on my country, but truthfully I am more embarrassed that my country has engaged in so many arrogant and wrong activities in the last few years. So in a way I am relieved that SOMEONE is looking into things.

First, the Washington Post broke a story that the CIA was operating secret prisons throughout former Soviet bloc countries in which they could illegally detain and possibly torture detainees with no oversight and virtual impunity. The Republican-dominated Congress seemed more angered that someone revealed the CIA's wrongdoing than that the CIA was embroiled in questionable activities. That still seems to be the case, as the president's party is seemingly rallying to protect his complicity in activities outlawed by the Geneva Convention—to say nothing of the US Constitution.

Now, Spain is investigating claims that CIA planes carrying terror suspects made secret stopovers on Spanish soil, according to a Spanish television announcement by Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso today. If proven, the minister said, such activities could damage relations between the Spanish and US governments.

According to Spanish press reports, the CIA is suspected of having used Majorca for such prisoner transfers. The suspect flights—10 in total—came to light in a report submitted by Spain's Civil Guard to the prosecutor's office of the Balearics Supreme Court in June, Spain's El Pais newspaper reported.

Earlier this month, the European Union and the continent's top human rights group said they will investigate allegations the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate terror suspects. The Red Cross demanded access to any prisoners.

Human Rights Watch said it has evidence, based on flight logs, that indicate the CIA transported suspects captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania. But the two countries—and others in the former Soviet bloc—denied the allegations. U.S. officials, unsurprisingly, have refused to confirm or deny the claims.

Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent's human rights principles. At work may be a complex web of global politics, in which eastern European countries face choices between the views of the European Union and their interest in close ties with the United States. Probably more than a little economic blackmail at work on the part of the Bush administration to "encourage" eastern European cooperation with the CIA.

The United States might find covering up its own human rights violations difficult is everyone else is also looking into the matter. Wouldn't it be refreshing if the Bush administration came clean instead?