Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claud Juncker to resign over spy scandal and alleged failure by Juncker to stop illegal security activity such as phone taps and corruption..... Will France and Germany demand such accountability from their politicians ? What about the US ( Lol ) What do Latin and South American stalwarts such as Brazil and Columbia do now that NSA spying ( including commercial / economic espionage ) has been revealed ? Will follow leaders burst out laughing or just walk out the next time President Obama raises cyber hacking as a concern ?

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/07/luxembourg-pm-jean-claude-juncker-to.html

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 4:53 PM

Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker to Resign Over Spy Scandal; Obama Should Do the Same

The spy scandal has now hit Luxembourg. Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, and also the head of eurogroup finance ministers will resign over spy scandal. 

 Luxembourg will hold new elections after Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced he would resign following a secret service scandal. Mr Juncker, Europe's longest-serving head of government, told parliament he would step down on Thursday.

The move came as his junior coalition partner called for the dissolution of parliament and early elections.

It follows claims he failed to stop illegal security agency activity such as phone-taps and corruption.

Mr Juncker has been prime minister since 1995 and was head of the eurozone finance ministers group between 2005 and January 2013.

"I will convene the government tomorrow morning at 10:00 (08:00 GMT) and will go to the Palace to suggest snap elections to the Grand Duke," he said on Wednesday.

Luxembourg's parliament had reviewed a report alleging a series of cases of misconduct by the country's SREL security agency, which the prime minister oversees.

It included claims of illegal bugging of politicians, the purchase of cars for private use and payments in exchange for access to local officials.

Juncker Denies Wrongdoing

Juncker told parliament "the intelligence service was not my top priority," while denying he personally did anything wrong.

When it Becomes Serious, You Have to Lie 

In case your memory needs refreshing, please recall that in the midst of the eurozone crisis, Jean-Claude Juncker openly stated "When it becomes serious, you have to lie".

It seems to me these charges are pretty serious.

If Obama and every other head of state involved in such scandals would resign as well, we would all be better off.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/09/196257/new-snowden-allegations-rile-latin.html

BOGOTA — Allegations that the United States has been actively spying on friends and foes in Latin America threatened to open new diplomatic fronts for the Obama administration as it scrambles to detain the source of the sensitive information: NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

On Tuesday, Brazil's O Globo newspaper, citing National Security Agency documents, said the United States had been monitoring Internet and telephone communications in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador, among other countries.

The newspaper said U.S. intelligence gathering went beyond national security issues to include economic espionage - collecting information on the petroleum industry in Venezuela and the energy sector in Mexico.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called an emergency meeting and has asked the United Nations to investigate the claims. One of her Cabinet members suggested the revelations might jeopardize Rousseff's state visit to the U.S. in October.

The allegations come amid growing speculation about the fate of Snowden, who has been stranded in a Moscow airport for more than two weeks as he eludes U.S. authorities on espionage charges. Early Tuesday, a Russian lawmaker tweeted that Snowden had accepted an asylum offer from Venezuela, only to delete the message minutes later. The Associated Press said the message had been an error. Foreign Minister Elias Jaua Tuesday confirmed that the government had not received Snowden's response.

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http://www.voanews.com/content/colombia-demands-explanation-on-nsa-spying-allegations/1698797.html

BOGOTA — Colombia expressed concern early on Wednesday after revelations the United States had spied on the Andean nation, its closest military ally in Latin America, and called for an explanation.

In a brief statement at midnight, Colombia's Foreign Ministry said it “registered its concern” that there had been an “unauthorized data collection program” and asked that the U.S. government give an account of its actions through its embassy in Bogota.

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“In rejecting the acts of espionage that violate people's rights and intimacy as well as the international conventions on telecommunication, Colombia requests the corresponding explanations from the United States government through its ambassador to Colombia,” the Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

Regional leaders called for a tough response to the alleged espionage that O Globo said included a satellite monitoring stations based in Brazil's capital.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/09/196257/new-snowden-allegations-rile-latin.html#storylink=cpy