The European Technical Center (ETC) is a U.S.

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA)

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

facility in

Mainz-Kastel Mainz-Kastel () is a district of the city Wiesbaden, which is the capital of the German state Hesse in western Germany. Kastel is the historical bridgehead of Mainz, the capital of the German state Rhineland-Palatinate and is located on the right ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Located in Building 4009 of the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

's Mainz-Kastel Storage Station, the facility serves as the NSA's "primary communications hub" in Europe. The center was known by the code name "GODLIKELESION".

History

In December 2005, a metal object discovered near the facility was suspected of being an undetonated

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

explosive. On January 24, 2006, NSA analysts evacuated the ETC while the object was investigated, shutting down the center for a full day. The suspicious ordnance proved to be merely a "pile of junk". In 2010, the center began experiencing technical difficulties, losing power over 150 times over the period of a few months. These events prompted the United States to expand and refurbish the facility, which was completed on September 19, 2011. Since then, the center has served as the NSA's "primary communications hub" in Europe, intercepting and forwarding large amounts of data to the NSA,

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

, and U.S. strategic partners in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The facility was disclosed in 2014 in documents released by the former NSA contractor

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

References

External links

Report on the Technical Expansion of the European Technical Center in Wiesbaden
(

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

)
European Technical Center – Report on the Experiences of One NSA Worker
(Electronic Frontier Foundation) {{coord, 50.0114, 8.2877, display=title National Security Agency facilities Buildings and structures in Wiesbaden