What do you make of this?

I went to a private school in England and I went to a English University and I married an English wife. I have very deep roots in England. In fact, today, my younger is a King's Medical School Graduate and she lives and works in London with her husband and my grand daughter.
So when I read a thing like this about MI6:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/12/britain-mi6-linked-libya-torture-scandal-20131217183914316294.html

I am left to wonder:

what the devil is going on?

Is it legal, proper, ethical and moral?

If it is not, then truly I am way out of date. I am as out of date as implied in this paraphrase of what Churchill once said:

War is cruel but glorious

Today, 

war is cruel but an utter abomination.

It is an abomination because every killing in war today borders on acts of crimes against humanity.