Bad Aibling Station (abbreviated BAS), 18th United States Army Security Agency Field Station, BND: Hortensie III, Echelon
Central Security Services of USA.[4] After the end of the Cold War, on several occasions including investigations of the European Parliament that censured industrial espionage by American secret services, the Americans intended to close the Bad Aibling Station.[5] The September 11, 2001 attacks delayed these plans. The restructuring of the American intelligence community after the September 11, 2001 caused the closure of Bad Aibling Station on September 30, 2004. The base was returned to the Federal Republic of Germany. In the vicinity in Bad Aibling, a base of the Bundesnachrichtendienst has always been in existence within the area of former barracks of the Bundeswehr. The Bad Aibling Station was an important monitoring station of the ECHELON System (RSOC, Regional SIGINT Operation Center) that employed up to 1000 staff members. Its task was acquisition of information for American authorities and other closely allied intelligence services, from the United Kingdom. The López affair that was cleared up by telephone surveillance in the BAS gained worldwide audience. According to official statements, the function of BAS was "Rapid Radio Relay and Secure Common, Support to DoD and Unified Commands, Medium and Longhand Common HF & Satellite, Communication Physics Research, Test and Evaluate Common Equipment"[8] Only few details are known. Serious hints, however, support the assumption that the BAS supervised numerous communication channels, including wireless communication, telephony and internet traffic. Particularly the communication with satellites, also outside the Intelsat system, seems to have been monitored by the BAS.[
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