Germany: Anti-NSA protesters demonstrate outside Reichstag as gvmt drops Merkel phone-tapping case

Anti-NSA protesters organised a demonstration outside the Reichstag as the country’s NSA inquiry board met inside for continued talks in Berlin, Friday. Organised by social justice organisation ‘Campact,’ two of the protesters wore huge masks of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. Green MP Konstantin von Notz also joined the protest, warning of a "totalitarian" political system emerging unless mass data-storage is opposed and prevented. The protest comes on the same day German prosecutors closed an investigation into the reported wire-tapping of Merkel’s mobile phone by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Chief prosecutor Harald Range released a statement on Friday, claiming there is not enough evidence to press forward with the case. The announcement follows German authorities expelling a leading US diplomat from Berlin in July 2014 after Merkel publicly condemned the NSA.