reuters  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 told a german tv network
in text released ahead of a lengthy interview to be broadcast on sunday ard tv quoted snowden saying the nsa does not limit its espionage to issues of national security and he cited german engineering firm siemens as one target
if theres information at siemens thats beneficial to us national interests  even if it doesnt have anything to do with national security  then theyll 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 public broadcasting 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 the publication of the information ard said
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 email
the revelations shocked germany a country especially sensitive after the abuses by the gestapo during the nazi reign and the stasi in communist east germany during the cold war
reports the nsa monitored chancellor angela merkels mobile phone have added to the anger in germany which has been pushing for a nospy agreement with the united states a country it considers to be among its closest allies
targets
snowdens claim the nsa is engaged in industrial espionage follows a new york times report earlier this month that the nsa put software in almost 100000 computers around the world allowing it to carry out surveillance on those devices and could provide a digital highway for cyberattacks
the nsa planted most of the software after gaining access to computer networks but has also used a secret technology that allows it entry even to computers not connected to the internet the newspaper said citing us officials computer experts and documents leaked by snowden
the newspaper said the technology had been in use since at least 2008 and relied on a covert channel of radio waves transmitted from tiny circuit boards and usb cards secretly inserted in the computers
frequent targets of the programme codenamed quantum included units of the chinese military and industrial targets
snowden faces criminal charges after fleeing to hong kong and then russia where he was granted at least a years asylum
he was charged with theft of government property unauthorised communication of national security information and giving classified intelligence data to an unauthorised person