Consulate General of the United States, Frankfurt

Coordinates:50°08′29″N8°41′37″E/ 50.14139°N 8.69361°E/50.14139; 8.69361
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Consulate General of the United States, Frankfurt
US-Generalkonsulat Frankfurt
Seal of the United States Department of State
Incumbent
James Herman
since 14 August 2015
United States Department of State
StyleConsul General
NominatorBarack Obama
Websitehttps://de.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/frankfurt/
U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt in 2008, at which the memorial ceremony ofSeptember 11 attackswas taking place

TheConsulate General of the United StatesinFrankfurt am Mainrepresents the interests of theUnited States governmentin Frankfurt,Germanyand nearby surrounding areas. It is the largest Consulate General of the US. It is more extensive regarding personnel and facilities than manyUS Embassies.Although technically a part of Mission Germany and reporting through theEmbassy of the United States in Berlin,the Frankfurt Consulate General operates with a significant degree of autonomy compared to other U.S. Consulates. This is partly due to several large U.S. government regional centers housed within the Consulate, which provide support in security, construction, and financial matters to several other U.S Diplomatic posts located throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

In 2006 the Frankfurt Consulate General relocated almost all its operations to a single facility. The former 97th General Hospital, Frankfurt Army Regional Medical Center, was once operated by the U.S. military and before that by the German military duringWorld War II.The refurbished and now modified building is quite large and expansive. The Frankfurt Consular district covers the German states ofHesse,Rhineland-Palatinate,Baden-Württemberg,andSaarland.

Use by intelligence agencies[edit]

In March 2017, a series of documents, referred to asVault 7,revealed that the US government uses the consulate as a base for cyber operations. This diplomatic representation was the largest US consulate worldwide regarding personnel and facilities and has played a prominent role in the US government's intelligence architecture for years. The intelligence personnel, includingCIAagents,NSAspies, military secret service personnel, theUS Department of Homeland Securityemployees, and the Secret Service employees are working in the building complex with high walls andbarbed wirein the north of the city. In a radius of about 40 kilometers around Frankfurt, the Americans had established a dense network of outposts and shell companies in Frankfurt. Vault 7 documents reveals the Frankfurt hackers, part of the Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe (CCIE), were given cover identities and diplomatic passports to obfuscate customs officers to gain entry to Germany.[1][2]The CIA station, in the consulate, is said to also collect Iranian intelligence in Europe, surveil on Iranian officials and target possible defectors who work in Iran's nuclear weapons program.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^Cody Derespina (7 March 2017)."WikiLeaks releases 'entire hacking capacity of the CIA'".Fox News.Archivedfrom the original on 28 April 2017.Retrieved7 March2017.
  2. ^John Goetz,Frederik Obermaier:(8)Frankfurter US-Konsulat soll Spionagezentrale sein - PolitikArchived2017-06-01 at theWayback Machine,Süddeutsche Zeitung,7 March 2017
  3. ^Walcott, John; Shalal, Andrea (Mar 8, 2017)."U.S. officials aware of CIA security breach in 2016, say WikiLeaks papers authentic".Reuters.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2017.Retrieved8 March2017.

External links[edit]

50°08′29″N8°41′37″E/ 50.14139°N 8.69361°E/50.14139; 8.69361


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