What I don't understand is why the Germans allow the US to setup a base that spies on them. According to the Spiegel the base was setup without local approval. Also also locals have been concerned for a long time because of possible radiation from the large antennas but for what ever reason the local government cant even inquire about it.<p>Imagine a German military base in the middle of the US that has who knows what kind of equipment on it and the local town can't question it.
Not that this justifies what happened at all, but:<p><i>"Bangert, a veteran of the Blockupy protests in Frankfurt, had set up a group calling itself "NSA spy protection league" (NSA Spion Schutzbund), as if the US spies were an endangered species of birds"</i><p>Would it be more reasonable to think that this individual was probably already being monitored as part of his Blockupy, and perhaps the German government was the one watching him more than the NSA was?
With all the talk of spying and monitoring citizens' whereabouts via license plate scans -- can anybody setup a camera to take snapshots of license plates of cars entering & leaving NSA & other such installations, and cross-reference these against license records?