> "We have had the order not to miss out on any information now that we are no longer able to monitor the chancellor's communication directly," it quoted the NS

> "We have had the order not to miss out on any information now that we are no longer able to monitor the chancellor's communication directly," it quoted the NSA employee as saying. Saying "we'll stop spying on Merkel", but we'll continue to spy on everyone near her even more so we can "incidentally" collect most of her conversations, or find out anything she would know from the ministers", is like a distinction without a difference. If I were Merkel I'd be just as pissed off at this, because the whole point of me getting mad in the first place was NSA trying to find out what I know. Whether they spy on me directly or through friends/colleagues, it doesn't really matter, does it? I'm imagining these guys guying their asses off in their offices when Obama made the speech about his "reforms", knowing very well the changes are at best cosmetic, and that they will continue to do everything they've been doing so far, while making the public believe otherwise.