us intelligence leaker edward snowden has alleged the national security agency engaged in industrial espionage
in an interview with germanys ard tv channel the former nsa contractor said the agency would spy on big german companies that competed with us firms
mr snowden who was granted temporary asylum by russia also said he believed that us officials wanted to kill him
his leaks caused outrage in germany when it came to light chancellor angela merkels phone had been bugged
after the row broke out last year mrs merkel accused the us of an unacceptable breach of trust
last week president barack obama indicated to germanys zdf tv that us bugging of mrs merkels mobile phone had been a mistake and would not happen again
mr snowdens new allegation about industrial spying may make it harder to rebuild transatlantic trust the bbcs stephen evans reports from berlin
referring to the german engineering company siemens mr snowden told ard: if there is information at siemens that they [the nsa] think would be beneficial to the national interests not the national security of the united states they will go after that information and theyll take it
he also said he believed us agents want to kill him referring to an article published by the buzzfeed website in which intelligence operatives are quoted as saying they want to see him dead
in august russia granted mr snowden asylum for one year after he leaked details of us electronic surveillance programmes
the us has charged mr snowden with theft of government property unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence
each of the charges carries a maximum 10year prison sentence earlier this week he said he has no chance of a fair trial in the us and has no plans to return there