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 The newspaper said its report on the operation, code-named "Shotgiant,"
was based on NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden, the former
agency contractor who since last year has leaked data revealing
sweeping U.S. surveillance activities. The German magazine Der
Spiegel also reported on the documents.
One of the goals of the operation was to find any connections
between Huawei and the Chinese People's Liberation Army, according
to a 2010 document cited by the Times.
But the newspaper said the operation also sought to exploit Huawei's
technology. It reported that the NSA aimed to conduct surveillance
through computer and telephone networks Huawei sold to other
nations. If ordered by the U.S. president, the NSA also planned to
unleash offensive cyber operations, it said.
The newspaper said the NSA secured access to the servers in Huawei's
sealed headquarters in the city of Shenzhen and got information
about the workings of the giant routers and complex digital switches
the company says connect a third of the world's people. The NSA also
tracked communications of Huawei's top executives, the Times
reported.
Der Spiegel reported that the NSA breached Huawei's computer network
and copied a list of more than 1,400 clients and internal training
documents for engineers. "We have access to so much data that we
don't know what to do with it," the magazine cited an NSA document
as saying.
The magazine said the NSA also is pursuing a digital offensive
against the Chinese political leadership. It named the government
targets as former Chinese prime minister Hu Jintao and the Chinese
trade and foreign ministries.
'PLANS AND INTENTIONS'
"Many of our targets communicate over Huawei-produced products. We
want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products," the
Times quoted an NSA document as saying, to "gain access to networks
of interest" around the world.
"If we can determine the company's plans and intentions," an analyst
wrote in the 2010 document, "we hope that this will lead us back to
the plans and intentions" of the Chinese government.
The Times also reported that as Huawei invested in new technology
and laid undersea cables to connect its $40 billion-a-year
networking operation, the NSA was interested in getting information
on into key Chinese customers including "high priority targets — Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Cuba."
The Times quoted William Plummer, a senior Huawei executive in the
United States, as saying that the company did not know it was a
target of the NSA.
"The irony is that exactly what they are doing to us is what they
have always charged that the Chinese are doing through us," the
Times quoted Plummer as saying.
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"If such espionage has been truly conducted then it is known that
the company is independent and has no unusual ties to any
government, and that knowledge should be relayed publicly to put an
end to an era of mis- and disinformation," the Times quoted Plummer
as saying.
The Times noted that U.S. officials see Huawei as a security threat
and have blocked the company from making business deals in the
United States, worried that it would furnish its equipment with
"back doors" that could enable China's military or Chinese-backed
hackers to swipe corporate and government secrets. Snowden last
year fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he has asylum. The
United States wants him returned to face criminal prosecution.
U.S. officials have denied the United States and NSA have spied on
foreign companies to help American companies gain a competitive
edge. A U.S. intelligence official said the NSA and other agencies
do not provide secretly collected intelligence information that
could be commercially sensitive or give a competitive advantage to
U.S. firms.
U.S. officials acknowledge that in the course of assessing the
economic prospects or stability of foreign countries American
agencies might collect data on individual companies.
They also said the United States might collect data on foreign
companies in preparation for imposing economic sanctions or taking
other foreign policy-related actions against a country and its
leadership, but not to aid American companies.
The Times and Der Spiegel articles were published just days before
Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Europe and will hold talks with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself a target of electronic
surveillance by the NSA.
They also were published during U.S. first lady Michelle Obama's
visit to China. In Beijing on Saturday, she told an audience of
college students that open access to information — especially online — is a universal right.
(Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington and Stephen Brown in Berlin;
editing by David Gregorio)
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