The NSA Wants Access To All Intel And Information

No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A. -- New York Times

When Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, sat down with President Obama at the White House in April to discuss Syrian chemical weapons, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and climate change, it was a cordial, routine exchange.

The National Security Agency nonetheless went to work in advance and intercepted Mr. Ban’s talking points for the meeting, a feat the agency later reported as an “operational highlight” in a weekly internal brag sheet. It is hard to imagine what edge this could have given Mr. Obama in a friendly chat, if he even saw the N.S.A.’s modest scoop. (The White House won’t say.)

But it was emblematic of an agency that for decades has operated on the principle that any eavesdropping that can be done on a foreign target of any conceivable interest — now or in the future — should be done. After all, American intelligence officials reasoned, who’s going to find out?

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Update: The New York Times Calls NSA 'The Amazon of Intelligence Agencies' After Going Through Snowden Documents -- Business Insider

My Comment: Kudos to the New York Times for doing this article. This is my must read post for today.