You are operating under the assumption that our politicians didn't know about this before. There's a really really low chance this is true.

It's much more plausible that everyone has been spying on everyone else and countries with restrictions regarding spying on their own citizens have backroom deals to get access to intelligence via other nations.

To give an example how tight the relations are between the US and Germany, start reading how our secret service came to be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehlen_Organization

I don't see that assumption in the parent's post. You apparently are operating under the assumption that politicians are less two-faced than they are.

So, you think Germany would pretend to be pissed off enough make moves against the US, instead of making their usual hollow threats that go nowhere?

Of course! The government will go as far (and only as far) as it takes to quell the dissatisfaction brewing among the people. If that goes as far as real action, that's what will happen.

IMO that would be a too strong a response for a country that heavily depends on export.

What is your point exactly? I'm not saying they will. I'm saying they would.

He would only stand a chance for asylum in Germany if he classifies as under political repression.

Application in an embassy is not possible. If he would manage to come to Germany he could not be extradited if there is a real risk of torture or death penalty.

Depending on whether the German government thinks it's worth the hassle, I think a reasonably good case could be made that he does indeed qualify for political asylum. Especially since this article suggests the US sees itself in the middle a cold war with the EU/Germany (...of all places. One would think that China is the enemy, but apparently one would be wrong).

If anything, this proves that the US leadership has gone of the rails. Nobody in western Europe considers the US the enemy or even a competitor. We consider them good friends.

As a german citizen, i would love to see this!

During Kim Dotcom coverage, some news articles mentioned that Germany does not extradite German citizens. Any chance the Bundestag can grant Snowden German citizenship?

I Denmark anybody can be granted citizenship, as long as it is passed as an act of parliament. Application isn't technically necessary.

That said, we do extradite citizens, so don't come here.

He probably could be, but he'd have a snowballs chance in hell of that happening.

Like that would ever happen. Especially in a country where US runs the shop since the end of WW2.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you but I disagree that the US runs Germany. Or what do you mean by saying "the US runs the shop since the end of WW2"?

Yes, the US has stationed troops and nuclear missels in Germany but this is far from "running the shop".

    I disagree that the US runs Germany.

I wouldn't use the word "runs", but Germany often does what the US tells it to do. For example, the German government gave in to US pressure and didn't pass warrants to Interpol for the 13 CIA agents who were responsible for the kidnapping and torture of an innocent German citizen.[1][2]

[1] http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/02/07BERLIN242.html

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri

I seriously doubt that even today Germany has a final say without US weighing in first in anything related to their military, intelligence, foreign policies. France on the other hand plays hard ball, I'd like to see something like that escalate in France.

If you'd ask me a week ago who the U.S. is spying on the most in the EU, I'd told you without hesitation: France. One can only wonder...

Basically, the US never stopped spying on Germany after WW2. I'd guess they kept upgrading their hardware during the cold war, and apparently never stopped after its end.

Also, the occupation authorities were instrumental in establishing the German intelligence service from the get-go, liberally making use of the existing NS personnel (Wikipedia[1] lists Reinhard Gehlen, Klaus Barbie, Alois Brunner, Wilhelm Krichbaum, Franz Rademacher, Walther Rauff, Konrad Fiebig, Franz Alfred Six as prominent examples).

[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesnachrichtendienst#Geschic...

I think Germany is fairly autonomous. However the conservative parties are basically US fanboys.

Interesting. Is the US army inside Germany a left over from cold war? Do they have the capability to own the country if necessary?

At least not by law http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&ie=UTF-8&u...

And yes, the US army bases in Germany are left overs from the allied occupation after WW II

The Heidelberg base is being abandoned by 2015. Lots of free space for student buildings! :)

If Heidelberg's administration is anything like Darmstadt's, the buildings will be abandoned and empty but well guarded till they fall into a state of dilapidation. At least by now none of the well maintained and repaired buildings there have been turned into student homes.

The US has the ability to take control of any country within 24 to 48 hours. Every year we draw up invasion plans for everyone else in the world. The CIA World Factbook [1] is the unclassified by-product of this effort if you are interested at poking into the details.

As with any other country with a large standing army (Germany sits somewhere between South Korea and France in terms of capabilities), it would probably begin with large scale air strikes with stealth bombers against military targets. Within the first 4 hours, most militarized airfields and radar installations would be destroyed. The ground forces would invade from probably Italy and Poland, both highly US dependent states, assuming that France and the UK would stay neutral in such an attack. You'd probably see some guerrilla warfare because the Germans are strong-willed, but the vast majority of the population is westernized enough to not put up a real fight. But none of this would happen until the US has at least 2 carriers in the Baltic Sea, so Germany would definitely have advance warning, and hopefully the foresight to negotiate.

Germany has no nuclear deterrent, as it simply hosts US missiles by way of NATO [2].

EDIT: This spells it out pretty clearly, the US has more helicopters than Germany has tanks ships and planes combined: http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison-detail.a...

1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ 2. http://www.rusi.org/publications/occasionalpapers/ref:O4B991...

That's all very nice, but while the US seems to be able to invade countries at will, they don't seem capable of occupying even the weakest of countries - Iraq and Afghanistan being cases in point.

This is almost unthinkable, but a very exciting proposition :) However, there's a problem of extensive CIA operation in the EU and history of kidnappings. Can be a little tricky.