> This is not just about the US wanting to know what's going on. This is about the US engaging in the sort of behavior that we have rebuked China over -- state-

> This is not just about the US wanting to know what's going on. This is about the US engaging in the sort of behavior that we have rebuked China over -- state-sponsored industrial espionage. If the NSA were only focused on industrial espionage with these programs then I don't see why they felt the need to target Google (a U.S. corporation in the first place). Not to put too fine a point on it, but oil is certainly a strategic resource and even if the U.S. never had a single plan to do anything with Brazil's oil, there are both military and national-interest reasons for knowing what Brazil knows about their own oil reserves, refinery capabilities, etc. Likewise there are embargo-related reasons to know if Brazil has secret agreements to export oil to nations embargoed by the UN. And the worst part about it all is that whether NSA is around or not, the U.S. does live in a cloak-and-dagger world, just like every other nation does. They can either somehow convince other nations to go about things "fairly" as well (possible with the EU and Brazil perhaps, not so much with Russia and China), or they can immerse themselves in that game as well. Certainly the U.S. is familiar with the problems of industrial espionage and secret economic agreements (some would say "bribes"), as both have been deployed against the U.S. (yes, even by friends, even by allies).