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

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level 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, collecti ...

(NSA)

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

facility in Mainz-Kastel,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Located in Building 4009 of the U.S. Army'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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

, 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 an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...

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 international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

)
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