US spied on Google, French foreign ministry, Brazil's Petrobras

RIO DE JANEIRO, Rio de Janeiro - A leaked US intelligence document highlighted Google, Brazilian oil giant Petrobras and the French foreign ministry as "targets", TV Globo has reported.

TV Globo said Sunday it obtained the information from Glenn Greenwald, a blogger and columnist for the Guardian newspaper, who got secret files from former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The report on the Brazilian network's "Fantastico" show said the nature and extent of the alleged espionage was not known.

But a slide used as part of an NSA presentation dated June 2012 to train analysts listed the entities under the heading "Many targets use private networks."

Besides Petrobras, they included Google infrastructure, the French foreign ministry, and SWIFT, a provider of secure financial messaging services to 10,000 banks and other financial institutions in 212 countries.

Other names on the list were obscured so as not to compromise counterterrorism investigations, TV Globo said.

In a statement Sunday, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reiterated that the US intelligence does not steal trade secrets.

"The United States collects foreign intelligence -- just as many other governments do -- to enhance the security of our citizens and protect our interests and those of our allies around the world," he said.

It was "not a secret" that US intelligence agents collected economic and financial data, including information about terror financing, he stressed.

The practice helped provide the US and its allies with "early warning" of potential international financial crises, as well as about the economic policy or behaviour of other countries that could affect global markets.

"Our collection of information regarding terrorist financing saves lives," he added.

"What we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our 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."

TV Globo said it was unaware of the scope or objectives of the spying on Petrobras, which is the world's leader in deep-water oil exploration and has an annual turnover of 200 billion reais (about $90 billion).

A week ago, the network reported that the NSA had intercepted communications from Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. That story was also based on information from Greenwald.

Rousseff, who is scheduled to visit Washington on October 23, warned that she would cancel the trip if she did not get convincing explanations from the Obama administration.

Obama pledged to ease tensions with Rousseff and Pena Nieto, telling them in separate meetings at last week's G20 summit that he understood their reaction.

He promised to provide answers by Wednesday.

Greenwald, who is based in Rio de Janeiro, said the NSA was using a programme to access all Internet content Rousseff visited online in order to better understand her methods of communication and interlocutors.

The NSA programme allegedly allowed agents to access the entire communications network of the president and her staff, including telephone, Internet and social network exchanges.

Some of Pena Nieto's email, phone calls and text messages were intercepted, including communications in which he discussed potential cabinet members before he was elected in July 2012, according to Greenwald.