The Drone and Satellite Story

I'll reference the basis of this story back to ARD (German public TV, Channel One).

So this is a story which starts in Yemen.  A US drone attack occurred.  Some Yemen folks contracted German authorities, and eventually....a court case was drawn up on German soil.  The court question was....does German allow or support US drone missions in Yemen?

The suggestion is that some satellite connection occurs from a US receiver point, and retransmits it onto the next satellite (from within Germany) which would provide the signal to the drone over Yemen.

The judge (OVG) in Münster?  They say that the German government must 'test' the US system  for  admissibility under international law.

Where this leads onto?  Some individual, likely from the Foreign Ministry, will call upon the US military liaison office, and ask for a meeting, and then explain they need to 'test' and understand the relationship of this drone to the satellite business.  It's hard to say how the liaison officer may handle this.  My humble guess is that it'll be forwarded to the four-star general in Stuttgart, and he'll bundle this up to forward onto the Pentagon.

They might agree to just a tour of a satellite 'farm', which I seriously doubt that it'll solve the judge's call for a 'test'. 

The fact that some form of satellite receiver understanding has been in place since the 1960 between the Germans and the US....probably doesn't matter. 

Creating an opportunity for the SPD Party to hinder the US?  I could see some point where President Trump looks at the 'test' business, and just finally says that there's some long-term problem in staying in Germany, and uses this as the basis for packing up and leaving.

The use of the court case to trigger the Americans into leaving?  Almost comical, but this is not the Germany of the 1960s/1970s, and the US might easily find a more cooperative partner in the European region, without the worry of international court cases. 

The one comical side of this story.....the US could shut down all satellite traffic coming in, and instead....hire some 18-year-old German geeky kid to put up a receiver dish on some German mountain top, and add a second dish to rely the signal to a satellite over the Med.  No one in the German government could ever figure out where the signal came down, or who shot the 2nd signal back up.  But lets be careful not to hint to the judge that his 'test' idea has severe limitations.