"We have to try to strike a certain balance between our determined fight against people who threaten our values of freedom and the means that form our democratic principles ... to enable us to stay in line with the laws in our society," Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, argued yesterday.
At a press conference with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Ms Merkel chose her words carefully to reflect deep, justified concern in Germany and Europe, implicitly reproaching the US over its "rendition" policy and the revelation that it has used secret bases in friendly European countries - the finger points persistently to Poland and Romania - to question suspects under rules that would not pass muster in the US.
Ms Rice insisted before she set out on her trip that "the US does not permit, tolerate or condone torture under any circumstances" and has reiterated US commitment to the UN Convention on Torture. She argued that the practice of "rendition", transporting terror suspects to states where they may be more easily questioned or charged, is decades-old and implied that European governments were perfectly aware what was going on.
Ms Rice's comments are, however, not reassuring. Nor is the insistence by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern that he is satisfied by her claim that prisoners have never been trans-shipped by the CIA through Shannon or that it has never been used for what he called "anything untoward". As the US authorities do not regard their treatment of suspects as in any way "untoward", providing such assurances is clearly not a problem.
The US secretary of state begs a number of questions. Her administration has redefined the term "torture" so that it does not cover practices such as "waterboarding" (simulated drowning), stress positions, sleep deprivation, mock execution and "cold cells" that have long been considered abusive by others and even by her own State Department. The US TV station ABC alleged yesterday that 11 of the 12 suspects held by the US in Europe but moved elsewhere before her trip were the subject of waterboarding. Nor are US justifications for renditions to locations away from the US remotely convincing. They only make any sense if the recipient state will use, or allow US agents to use, more "efficient" interrogation methods banned in the US. A number of the rendered have ended up being tortured in states like Egypt, Jordan and Syria, notorious for their maltreatment of prisoners.
If Ms Rice does want to reassure allies she must go further - one simple measure would be for the president to reverse his opposition to US Senate legislation prohibiting the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of detainees held by the US. And the Government, which is out on a limb and - it seems - increasingly desperate in its response to public concerns over the alleged use of Shannon in the rendition process, could impress on Washington that a sceptical Irish public could be easily reassured were it to invite monitors on to flights passing through Shannon. After all, if they have nothing to hide ...