Consolidated Intelligence Center
The Consolidated Intelligence Center (CIC, German: Vereinigtes Nachrichtendienstliches Zentrum) in Wiesbaden, Germany, is a controversial US intelligence facility under construction by the US Army Europe, located on the grounds of the Lucius D. Clay Barracks in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, formerly Wiesbaden Army Airfield, about eight kilometres southeast of downtown Wiesbaden. The purpose of the facility, according to the US Army, is to support US forces with tactical theatre-of-war support and strategic intelligence functions. As such, it is implied that data fusion would also take place at this location.
The base has been the source of much controversy in Germany, especially since the US has claimed that the facility would not be used by the NSA, which leaked documents and the former President of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) have confirmed to be a lie. This circumstance led to the question of whether the US government tried to mislead the German public and the German federal government or whether the federal government had helped the US cover up the purpose of the facility. The German public and a significant number German politicians across the political spectrum are highly critical of American espionage programmes like XKeyscore or ECHELON. Security experts in Germany calculated that by the year 2000, American industrial espionage was already causing annual economic losses of at least €10 billion per year to the German economy due to stolen inventions and development projects – the number having likely only risen since then due to the increase of digitisation. Additionally, the German Parliamentary Committee investigation of the NSA spying scandal found that the NSA had also "massively" spied on EU politicians and agencies as well as illegally collecting the communications of over 8 million EU citizens. A YouGov poll from 2018 showed the plurality of Germans is for a complete removal of all US troops from Germany, increasing the pressure on the federal government to also halt the operations of the Consolidated Intelligence Center and its activities.