Photo Gallery A Powerful NSA Toolbox
This National Security Agency complex in San Antonio, Texas, located in a former Sony chip factory, is one of the central offices of the intelligence agency's Tailored Access Operations, the NSA's top operative unit. It's something like a squad of plumbers that can be called in when normal access to a target is blocked.
US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with executives from leading technology companies, including Apple, Twitter and Google, in this Dec. 17 archive photo. The documents seen by SPIEGEL indicate the NSA's desire to "subvert endpoint devices".
According to the documents, one trail also leads to Germany. According to a document dating from 2010 that lists the "Lead TAO Liaisons" domestically and abroad as well as names, email addresses and the number for their "Secure Phone," a liaison office is located near Frankfurt -- the European Security Operations Center (ESOC) at the so-called "Dagger Complex" at a US military compound in the Griesheim suburb of Darmstadt.
