Wily Washington ropes EU into its ruses

To those who live on a steady diet of Hollywood bubble gum and who are gullible enough to believe everything they read or hear about evil regimes intent on taking over the world, it must seem like Brussels is the new Berlin - a hotbed of intrigue and espionage.

At least that is what the European External Action Service would have them believe, according to a report in Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Despite the fact that it apparently already has the capacity to listen in to everything that is said through backdoors supposedly installed in cellphones, computers, washing machines or anything else that has been made in China, it seems China still needs to give lodging to around 250 spies in its embassy and give them expenses so that they can surreptitiously dine in the same restaurants as European diplomats and military officials in the hope these powerful personages will inadvertently let slip some juicy nugget of information after a glass too many of Chablis.