Even Tiny Luxembourg Does "It"

Trey Smith

When caught as the ringleader of the biggest "spy ring" of them all, Barack Obama merely shrugged his shoulders and said, "Everybody does it." He may have a point! As Eric Margolis reports, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg "just resigned over a nasty scandal involving his nation’s tiny intelligence service."

What is the world coming to when Luxembourg of all counties has a spying scandal?

Yes, most nations have spy agencies and many of them spend an inordinate amount of time keeping tabs on their own citizens. It may not be ethical, but it seems to be what modern nation-states do. So, does this fact let the US off the hook? Not in Margolis' book (or mine).

Even so, Washington’s lame excuse “everyone does it” or blaming “terrorism” is clearly bogus. No other nation mounts such an intensive worldwide electronic spying operation. Spying on EU trade negotiators discussing banana quotas has nothing to do with so-called terrorism.

You see, there is a big difference here. Other nations spy on their adversaries and, maybe, their own citizens, but only the US spies on everybody, friend and foe alike!