ballistic medal missiles, ready in remote areas of the u.s. could be threatened by vulnerabilities. tonight officials have long raised alarms of china s huawei, sitting on top of cell towers in american bases, including bases that have nuclear silos. multiple sources tell cnn, the fbi determined that that huawei equipment was capable of capturing or disrupting restricted u.s. military communications, including communications from u.s. strategic command, which oversees americans nuclear weapons. it could allow china to, for, example collect communications of military officials who are moving around and in between these various different installations. cnn intelligence reporter katie bo willis has a new report on a multi year investigation by u.s. officials, into china s ramped up espionage operations inside the u.s., she says it s not clear if the u.s. intelligence community has found any sensitive data was actually
sensitive data was intercepted and sent back to china from the cell towers where huawei equipment is used. experts say even though american nuclear bases use encrypted communications. icbms are supposed to be hard. it may not be easy to do. reporter: china s alleged spying aspirations don t and. according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, in 2017, the chinese government offered to spend $100 million to build an elaborate chinese garden at the national arboretum in washington, a project that would ve included temples, pavilions and a 70 foot pagoda. when u.s. counter intelligence officials began digging, they found that pagoda would have been strategically placed inside the arboretum s grounds on one of the highest points in the city, two miles from the u.s. capital. this is a concern. china was going to be able to use this friendship garden, this pagoda as a prime platform
chinese made huawei equipment was used in places like colorado and nebraska that are close to a lot of sensitive u.s. military installations, including u.s. nuclear missile silos. companies say they were using this equipment because it was cheap, it was reliable, but the fbi in the course of its investigation was able to determine that the equipment had the capability although they couldn t prove that it was actually being done, had the capability to recognize, intercept and potentially even disrupt restricted defense department communications. this obviously offered china a potentially dangerous window into the command and control for the u.s. nuclear arsenal and as one counterintelligence official familiar with the investigation described it to us, goes into the bfd category. china denies it uses this equipment to spy on the united states and huawei denies that its equipment could even be used in this fashion, but this comes at a moment in which u.s.
wha huawei for years, but it s harder to extricate the equipment from networks. the u.s. government has banned the u.s. of huawei equipment, but going into the heartland, the technology is out there. a lot of rural telecommunication providers found that the fbi has investigated and determined that huawei equipment can, indeed, disrupt communications used by the u.s. military. so it s an eye opening investigation, indeed. it goes to show the issue with huawei is far from over, and it s been an issue in terms of huawei offering cheaper equipment throughout the developing world to countries that maybe can t afford it. but here in the u.s., that cost effectiveness is telling and it s something that u.s. telecom operators are having to deal with. sean, thank you for that
we are back with our tech lead. and a cnn exclusive. the fbi is increasingly alarmed about a chinese company s ability to intercept sensitive military information here in the united states, including nuclear arsenal communications. cnn s katie beau broke the story. one fbi official said the concern level over the chinese made equipment on top of u.s. cell towers is in the bfd category, we ll let our viewers translate what it means. lay it out for us. this all started with this big fbi counterintelligence investigation that dates back to at least the obama administration. it was ultimately briefed after the trump white house in 2018. the fbi knew the small rural telecommunications carriers in the midwest were using huawei equipment on top of their towers in places like colorado and nebraska where there s a lot of sensitive u.s. military installations, including nuclear missile silos. wow. companies say they were using this equipment because it s