Big 5-Eyed Brother: US+4 join forces to spy on whole world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_BM3sW34LQ
Thought you guys would like this, in my opinion this sort of intelligence program is just a continuation and natural evolution (as technology has improved making this sort of thing possible, cheaper and more economical than wiretapes and digital communications have become increasingly important) of previous programs such as echelon, probably going back to WW2 at-least, possibly well before then.
However I think they have gone beyond the pale with the mass survaillance inside the anglosphere, but nevertheless this is an often overlooked part of the NSA, and it makes you question the effectiveness of such organizations when you have Chinese hackers stealing US blueprints, particularly military (such as the F35) but they have also stolen civilian things such as nuclear reactor designs.
Finally there is also the question of how equal we are in these activities, in sharing the information, in coordination and particularly in the commercialization of retrieved technology. Ultimately I think there are aspects that are being overlooked and not considered about these intelligence programs.