I think it is a lot simpler than that. The murder of Lee Rigby gave the authoritarians a chance to start talking about the importance of surveillance. The usual

I think it is a lot simpler than that. The murder of Lee Rigby gave the authoritarians a chance to start talking about the importance of surveillance. The usual suspects started talking about it within hours of the murder, and that was long before any of the NSA leaks. For example, this article is from the very next day following the murder, not even 24 hours later and the name of the victim wasn't even known publicly at this point: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/23/woolwich-nick-clegg-communications-bill-risk http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/23/woolwich-nick-clegg... I think the current letter is just an attempt to double down on the rhetoric. It's probably prompted by the NSA leaks but not in a "this is our chance to hoodwink them!" kind of way, more "we are loosing the narrative we need to remind them all to be scared".