Berlin: Whistleblower Edward Snowden has alleged that US National Security Agency not only collected massive telephone and Internet communications and spied on foreign leaders, but also engaged in industrial espionage.
Snowden, a former NSA contractor said this in an interview to German public television broadcaster ARD broadcast last night. "There is no doubt that the NSA is involved in economic espionage," Snowden said in his first tv interview since he fled to Moscow via Hong Kong in June.
The 30-year-old was granted a one-year asylum by the Russian authorities in August. "If there is information at Siemens that they (the NSA) think would be beneficial for the national interests, not the national security of the United States, they will go after that information and get it," he said.
A few days ago, the NSA strongly denied that it is involved in economic espionage after the New York Times reported that the spy agency had planted bugs in 100,000 computers, which enabled it to access the machines that were not even connected to the Internet. In a statement published by the paper, a NSA spokesperson said "we do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of – or give intelligence we collect to – US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line."
The latest allegations that the US spied on big German companies competing with US industries are bound to aggravate a conflict between the two countries, triggered by Snowden's disclosures last year that the NSA also allegedly spied on Angela Merkel's mobile phone for several years. The German government had deplored the alleged surveillance operations as a "breach of trust" and has been demanding from the US clarifications on Snowden's revelations. It also has been pressing the US for the signing of a bilateral "no spy agreement".
In the interview, Snowden also alleged that he was getting life threats from American officials, who he said wanted to assassinate him. He referred to an article published by the BuzzFeed website, which quoted unnamed Pentagon and NSA officials. "These people –- and they are government officials- have said that they would love to fire a bullet into my head or poison me when I return from the supermarket and to watch me die in the shower,” he told the network.
But, "I am still alive and I have no sleepless nights," Snowden said. "It was the right thing to do and I have no fear," he said. Classified NSA documents leaked by him since he fled the US to Hong Kong at the end of May revealed the extent of the "Prism" surveillance programme of the NSA and "Tempora" programme of British agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
Snowden, who faces criminal charges in the US for leaking details of US surveillance programmes, said he has no plans to return to his country because he cannot expect a fair trial. Snowden also said: "It is very logical to assume that she is not the only government representative monitored by the NSA." It is very unlikely that some one, who is interested in the intentions of the German government, targeted only the chancellor and not any other members of the government, ministers or representatives of the state governments, he said.
