Snowden says NSA involved in industrial espionage
Print Edition
The US National Security Agency is involved in industrial espionage and will grab any intelligence it can get its hands on regardless of its value to national security, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has told German TV.
In text released ahead of a lengthy interview broadcast yesterday, ARD TV quoted Snowden as saying the NSA does not limit its espionage to issues of national security and citing German engineering firm Siemens as one target.
“If there’s information at Siemens that’s beneficial to US national interests — even if it doesn’t have anything to do with national security — then they’ll take that information nevertheless,” Snowden said, according to ARD, which recorded the interview in Russia where he has claimed asylum.
Snowden also told the German network he no longer has possession of any documents or information on NSA activities and has turned everything he had over to select journalists. He said he did not have any control over publication.
Questions about US government spying on civilians and foreign officials burst into the open last June when Snowden leaked documents outlining the widespread collection of telephone records and e-mail.
Reports that the NSA monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone have added to the anger in Germany, which has been pushing for a “no-spy” agreement with the United States, a country it considers to be among its closest allies.
Snowden’s claim that the NSA is engaged in industrial espionage follows a New York Times report earlier this month that the NSA put software in almost 100,000 computers around the world, allowing it to carry out surveillance on those devices.
The NSA planted most of the software after gaining access to computer networks, but also used a secret technology, in use since at least 2008, that allowed it entry to computers that were not even connected to the Internet.
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