Via Scott Shane this investigative report – “From thousands of classified documents, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as foes, as has become obvious in recent weeks; the agency’s official mission list includes using its surveillance powers to achieve “diplomatic advantage” over such allies as France and Germany and “economic advantage” over Japan and Brazil, among other countries… Since Edward J. Snowden began releasing the agency’s documents in June, the unrelenting stream of disclosures has opened the most extended debate on the agency’s mission since its creation in 1952. The scrutiny has ignited a crisis of purpose and legitimacy for the N.S.A., the nation’s largest intelligence agency, and the White House has ordered a review of both its domestic and its foreign intelligence collection. While much of the focus has been on whether the agency violates Americans’ privacy, an issue under examination by Congress and two review panels, the anger expressed around the world about American surveillance has prompted far broader questions. If secrecy can no longer be taken for granted, when does the political risk of eavesdropping overseas outweigh its intelligence benefits? Should foreign citizens, many of whom now rely on American companies for email and Internet services, have any privacy protections from the N.S.A.? Will the American Internet giants’ collaboration with the agency, voluntary or otherwise, damage them in international markets? And are the agency’s clandestine efforts to weaken encryption making the Internet less secure for everyone?. See also:

• Documents Show N.S.A. Efforts to Spy on Both Enemies and Allies – “In classified documents obtained by Edward J. Snowden and shared with The New York Times by The Guardian, the British news organization, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore, routinely spying on friends as well as foes.”
• Slate – NSA snooping exposed by Snowden breaches international law, experts say. By Ryan Gallagher
• The Atlantic – Why the NSA’s Defense of Mass Data Collection Makes No Sense – The U.S. intelligence community claims it’s not spying on citizens until someone actually looks at the data it collects. That argument is deeply flawed. by Bruce Schneier
• The Economist – Foreign alarm about American spying is mounting. But the sound and fury do not always match up