The difference seems to be, that the US agencies are causing more damage, because they are actually competent at what they are doing, while the German agencies are happy whenever they are invited to play with the big toys - thus the ass-kissing.

I think the reason for this is mainly less budget partly due to the fact, that the German agencies are often not federal agencies, e.g. each tiny state has their own Verfassungsschutz.

I mean, the NSU affair was really bad, but incompetent-criminals-bad not secret-state-government-bad.