> multiple sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN that there's no question the Huawei equipment has the ability to intercept not only commercial cell traffic but also the highly restricted airwaves used by the military

I am a bit out of date on the latest designs, but presumably antenna resonance, array phase (directionality) and radio spectrum are all controllable with software now. Any or all of these could be modified remotely and changed back to civilian cell parameters again in a matter of seconds. Additionally the firmware, and hence general capabilities, can be remotely updated.

Hence, one can no longer look at a device like a modern radio cell and say "this is designed to work in such a way". If you impounded it, took it to a lab, what you'd see on the bench may have no relation to how it operated a few days ago. Given also that traffic to and from the device may be encrypted all the way back to Beijing, the operation of the devices cannot be attested even in principle.

This is a serious general problem in modern security - one of unfalsifiability and plasticity of form and function. It applies as much to Windows and Apple computers as to Huawei.

Unless we quickly reverse the trend toward vendor-trust models that give over total control to unverifiable remote entities we're all going to be seriously screwed soon. This is going to play out in the Intel microcode debacle, in Apple's iron control over devices in the face of EU interoperability edicts, and on many more fronts...

And last I checked, our clinically insane UK government still hasn't fully buried the idea the Chinese might build us a nuclear power station over here!