Luxembourg's Great Spying Case: Smoke and Mirrors? But where are the Girls?

My Orchids. Paphiopedilum Clair de Lune. Naples, Florida.Photo ET

Pssssttt! Luxembourg is full of secrets. You want me to tell you? But then I would have to kill you! If a secret went out, it wouldn't be a secret anymore, right?

But I can lift the cover a little bit, For Your Eyes Only, because I can sense that we have special Bonds. You think of Luxembourg as a dull place where overpaid bourgeois are always vacationing in tropical spots? The fact is most are on Her Majesty's Secret Service. On unlimited budgets, with gadget cars, and drinking Martinis, shaken, not stirred, under palm trees. For us, The World Is Not Enough! Like an Octopussy we sneak into worldwide power, with Thunderball at the United Nations Security Council, and Mr. Goldfinger manipulating the Euro. We not Only Live Twice, but like Diamonds, we Are Forever. Those are the reasons for the dark secret maneuvering deep down under the city. The Casemates come alive nightly, dark silhouettes are roping down the fortress walls, black tied snorkelers swim up the Petrusse River and, uninvited, mingle with guests at the FêteNat Party, a real Casino Royale.

But Golden Eye was watching. The reality is that Luxembourg's spies are aging, and are becoming forgetful. Some resort to gadgets to record their own conversations, phone calls, even dreams so to leave notes to themselves. Then they forget what they said, but the gadget is password protected, which they can't remember. And they can't remember who recorded the conversation, and suspicions start to fly. Sometimes it is useful to make those suspicions public. Mr Goldfinger did come out recently with a spy story, in order to hide the Cargolux fiasco story, which needs to be covered up the way the National Stadium fiasco story was covered up.

But in this case Dr. No got his Parliamentary Enquiry. The reason is that no Member of Parliament and no Member of the government is directly suspected of wrongdoings or corruption. Just a bit of lying, but according to Mr. Goldfinger, in politics there are moments where you have to lie. So that's the Truth.

There couldn't be a Cargolux Enquiry or a National Stadium Enquiry, because of the people involved. And indeed a majority thought that way, that everything was transparent. But that was a lie. And that is the Truth.

On December 6th, Mr Goldfinger will tell us all the Truth. In plain cloth, or in St Nicholas garb. Either way, he might have to tell us a lie. And that is the Truth. Tomorrow Never Dies.

In the meantime I'm struggling to get a good story out of this. There are no girls yet in the story. Even not Miss Moneypenny. Can St Nicholas bring one along? Please!