Doug Henwood asked:
> what's with the "33,000" German radicals? -
> who's counting,
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt fuer Verfassungsschutz, BfV) http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/ and the respective agenices of the various German federal states. More about the organisation of the various German secret services at: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/germany/index.html Has links to their various webpages.
> and how do they know?]
>
First of all they study the publications of the various 'radical' organisations. They certainly have informers placed inside the organisations, but for obvious reasons they seldom make their informations public. And last not least bugging of phones, email, opening of letters etc.
Since most organisations tend to publish inflated numers about their membership, this practice is reflected in the annual reports of the BfV as well. After all a lot of radicals means job security for them.
Johannes