I'll reference this back to SWR (public TV for the Pfalz region), and it's a fairly long story, but I'll keep it simple.
Going back four years ago (Obama era), some German hyped up that the Americans controlled the drones used in various Middle Eastern missions....out of a base in the Pfalz area, and these were used for 'attacks'.
So the court action started up. A discussion occurred where the question had to be asked....can Germany allow drone-control out of the Pfalz region or Germany itself? Shouldn't international law prevent such an action? Could Germany shut down such an action?
The Federal Administrative Court (Leipzig) has the case now.
The previous court action? They basically said that Germany had to control or halt the attacks (on the Jeminites). The German Defense Ministry? Well, they appealed the court action and pushed it to the next level.
The chief problem at this point? No one at this point has made a single bit of effort to say 'control' of the drone business resides in the Pfalz US-base. It is a bit odd....to get this far into a court action, and nothing of substance has been laid on the table. The action so far says that Germany can and will control the Middle Eastern attacks.
The case can go one of two ways.
1. Some judge may ask who the pilot is, and where he might be sitting. The response? It could be some guy sitting in a hotel at Miami Beach, or a chateau in Scotland. Once satellites came into play, you don't need to be in a war-zone or even on solid land itself (meaning you could be on a boat in the Med and fly the stupid drone). The case dissolves away at this point.
2. Some judge may view the whole thing and say that any 'control' or any 'process' on German soil that leads to any military action....has to be dissolved. At that point, all US operations would be open to interpretation, and likely end the US basing in Germany (even for NATO support).
You can stand and admire the legal build of this case, and how technology really has developed long past the current law structure of Germany (going past military topics and getting into social media conflicts).
How long might this linger at the Leipzig court? Maybe a year....maybe two years.
UPDATE: 26 Nov, the Court looked over everything then said....the folks bringing up the violation and the court case....have to respect that the US agreed to abide by international law while on German soil. Thus, the case ended at the conclusion of Wednesday's effort.
End? Well....at least until the next court challenge on some other new aspect.
2 comments:
The Pfalz courts have absolutely no authority over anything that occurs on base, that is strictly the domain of the USAF. On his way out the door trump needs to tell the Pfalz courts to F off.
If you go back forty years ago, there were German legal efforts mounted to restrain or limit the US basing business. There's been dozens of episodes (some involving taxation, some with noise levels, some with military exercises). So this is just another attempt. The chief problem with this episode is that you have to establish where the drone took off from, and who is piloting it...meaning where he sits. If neither are in Germany, then the rest of the discussion is mostly stupid chatter.
Bottom line, there are various elements to get the US to finally leave and end the basing. Then there are various efforts to convince everyone that the evil Soviets/Russians are still an issue, so you need military basing. I'd suggest that once the Cold War ended, this basing business was a spiraling downward situation, and Clinton should have written the exit plan.
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