There's a similar base in the UK at Menwith Hill. They don't welcome visitors as such, but activist/comedian Mark Thomas discovered that due to a quirk in a law, it was legal to fly a hot air balloon over 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)

That's just simply fantastic.

Mark Thomas is hilarious.

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.

Is he still doing any TV shows? I would be so up for that stuff. Just brilliant!

"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."

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.

I have learned that when you make them wonder what's in the box, they open it and find out.

Germany doesn't "allow" US bases. They were forced to have them after World War II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_in_Germ...

[update: removed speculation about german taxpayer covering the bill]

Also keep in mind these bases pump a TON of money back into the local economy:

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."

This is what makes the Dagger Complex so special: Usually, locals are very friendly to the US troops and the local dignitaries are devastated when they leave.

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.

There's at least one person like you in every one of these threads, propagating the idea that money or economics makes injustice okay.

Who said anything about "okay"? It's an explanation for there being less protest then there might otherwise be.

What injustice? The Germans approve the bases. The US finds them useful. It's a mutually beneficial situation that both sides want to continue.

Do you not see the injustice!?! :^)

The Heidelberger mayor Eckart Würzner said he felt very sad about the departure of the US Army:

“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.

He's right, and you can look at Eastern European countries to see what would've happened otherwise.

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...

A lot of former employees have been relocated to bases in Wiesbaden and Kaiserslautern, but you're right that there will be an economic downturn, a drop in petrol & energy consumption etc.

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

Either the military is all about [insert alleged ideals and aims here], and then people would forego more lucrative options to do the right thing and work in the military sector; or it's not, and we should just stop the fucking charade. Maybe Smedley Butler is right, war is a racket, and the costs in lives and materials outweigh the benefits by far... how's that for an idea? It creates X jobs and destroys Y lives; so let's talk about both or neither.

> What I don't understand is why the Germans allow the US to setup a base that spies on them

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 current German citizenry don't dictate the ongoing activities of the German government, and after WWII they had no choice, so their permission isn't necessary.

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 many embassies contain? There were serious health concerns about staff in the British Embassy in Moscow during the Cold War from all the stuff the Soviets were throwing at the building trying to work out what the occupants were up to.

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?

Ever wonder what it would be like to say what you mean?

Embassies are full of secret spying equipment, and indeed spies. Foreign warships that come to visit "interesting" ports have been known to carry extra electronics intelligence equipment.

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.

Europe is full of US military bases, which although intelligence requests are approached through a veneer of "assisting allies," does come with a certain amount of implied threat when you enter the dark realm of realpolitik.

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.