Speaking of bad things done with “good” motives:
This is a story of private jets flying out of Germany, of kidnappings on European streets, and of torture. It has a cast of lawyers, spies, suspected terrorists, innocent bystanders and an ex-CIA boss who believes that ‘human rights is a very flexible concept’.
Scheuer says that with each rendition, he is convinced that “these people deserved to be off the street�. But mistakes would happen, as they always did, and innocents might be captured. “It is impossible not to have a mistake in the business of espionage and intelligence,� he says. “There was never anything flip or blasé about the way this was approached. It was a deadly serious business, and if we were wrong, we were wrong. But the evidence pointed us toward what we did.�
Scheuer has few qualms about the danger that such men might be tortured: “The bottom line is getting anyone off the street who you’re confident has been involved or is planning to be involved in operations that could kill Americans is a worthwhile activity.�
Even if he might be tortured? “It wouldn’t be us torturing them. And I also think that there is a lot of Hollywood involved in our portrayal of torture in Egypt and in Saudi Arabia. It’s rather hypocritical to worry about what the Egyptians do to people who are terrorists and not condemn the Israelis for what they do to people they deem terrorists. Human rights is a very flexible concept. It kind of depends on how hypocritical you want to be on a particular day.�
See also: the story of Khaled al-Masri