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.
So that's what he did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBksQsAZ2hQ (short version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epWTJUajIdI (full episode)
He once organised a bunch of people who went to the big Apple Store on Regent Street and opened a webpage on all the devices there. The contents of said page informed readers (potential buyers) that they could get the same devices at a nearby high street retailer who didn't indulge in shady tax avoidance schemes.
Another time he went around sticking Margaret Thatcher heads on the ladies in girlie mags.
Sometimes, when I imagine what I would do if I won the Lottery and had a few millions I could just fritter away, I think it would be highly entertaining to buy a lot outside of Washington DC or perhaps in New Jersey and construct upon it a building, surrounded by razor wire and maybe trenches, and then come up with ever more fanciful antenna looking designs to install on the roof. Sort of an artists enclave where the artists could visualize different shapes that might pull un-imagined signals out of the air.
And never let anyone "official" inside the building.
Clearly you'd need a few million for the building and a few tens of millions for the law firm that would spend its days keeping the curious out.
Its a variation on the old puzzle box psychologists trick where you keep an obvious unopened box in the room and refuse to talk about the contents. It really does drive people nuts.
[update: removed speculation about german taxpayer covering the bill]
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/30/12482964-bye-b...
"City officials in Heidelberg expect annual financial losses of up to $25 million, as a result of the closures of U.S. bases in the region."
"We estimate that a total of about 1,000 civilian jobs will be lost, when the nearly 8,000 service members pull out," said Diana Scharl, a spokesperson for the city of Heidelberg."
Not here. The NSA people are secretive, hostile and their activities are unpopular. I read an article in my local (!) newspaper recently, where people, among them the mayor of the nearest town, complained about the installation.
“After World War II no-one in Heidelberg knew the way into the future. The US Army worked to educate the young generation about how democracy works. It gave Heidelberg a perspective and helped the city get back on its feet and on its way to democracy,” he said.
However, this isn't the Army we're talking about (obviously, they're leaving), but the NSA, whose mission is to gather intelligence to protect the US, so it's kinda funny that it uses bases smack in the middle of foreign countries...
On the other hand, something very positive is that the 2.500 abandoned apartments will make some space in the horrendous housing shortage in Heidelberg. The regional authorities said it's short of 8000+ apartments to fulfill the needs of thousands of commuters and students. So this is seen as a relieve.
The 213 hectars open area can also be used for sport facilities, agricultural utilization, public green space or rooms for the "creative economy" as germans say.
Heidelberg is very stable economically speaking and will not struggle from the troops leaving in 2014. Excluding any friendships and romantic liaisons that might end, this is generally seen as positive by germans. My guess would be that the service members are also glad to be returning home.
For reference, a picture of the currently occupied space by the US in Heidelberg : http://i.imgur.com/TsZuTC8.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstadt see "United States Military presence". It sounds like it started out as part of the post-WW2 occupation.
The Cold War-era West German clandestine/covert operations was run almost entirely by Western powers, particularly the US. The relationships between the German intelligence community (BND) and the American intelligence community (NSA/CIA) is still very tight, so that explains the nature of their relationship.
Many still harbor feelings that the Cold War may have ended, but the need (for the intelligence infrastructure surrounding it) never went away.
Ever wondered what that odd superstructure box on a visiting warship parked in your local naval base had inside it?
Ever wondered why Britain was so keen to hang onto random colonial possessions and the Cyprus base areas? And why other Western countries didn't mind?
My point was that you don't have to imagine a foreign power having unknown surveillance equipment on your nation's soil. Unless you're in the most backwater nation on earth foreign powers will already be doing this.
Heck, for half a century Operation Gladio and its NATO-wide equivalents reduced several European governments to puppet states through a campaign of terror, all in the pursuit of US interests.