Here's Why Snowden Plea Negotiations Are Going Nowhere

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13. You are absolutely right

There is evidence that governments around the world knew what the NSA was doing. Merkel indicates her approval of the NSA spying earlier, before Snowden released information showing that she was spied on as well. What they didn't know was that political leaders and corporate tools were systematically spied on to gain corporate and political information, not to gain information on terrorist or other spies. It was ok with Merkel as long as only the bottom 99% were being spied on by the NSA. When she found out she was being spied on as well, then it became a problem.

I suspect the same thing is true around the world. Political leaders are fine with average citizens being studied, cataloged and spied on. It's just when they, or their corporate honey pots, get treated like an average citizen that political leaders voice their complaints.

It was only the mass of citizenry that wasn't aware of the NSA's illegal activities. The politicians and corporate world were just fine with it, until it was them.