NSA and FBI Spying

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/11/21/the_obscure_fbi_team_that_does_the_nsa_dirty_work

https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/11/repeated-attacks-hijack-huge-chunks-of-internet-traffic-researchers-warn/

Location tracking of cell phones by the NSA.  It is so obvious.  Of course they can do it and because they can, they do.

President Obama says "Trust Me"
"The NSA actually does a very good job about not engaging in domestic surveillance, not reading people's emails, not listening to ... the contents of their phone calls," the president said Thursday during an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews.
"Outside of our borders, the NSA's more aggressive. It's not constrained by laws.  And part of what we're trying to do over the next month or so is having done an independent review and brought a whole bunch of folks, civil libertarians and-- lawyers and others to examine what's being done."

I am sure that what he says is literally true.  That is another way to express a lie that depends on the literal interpretation to hide the truth.  Literally true.  Conceptually a lie.  If it were not for our exceptionalism other countries would be free to do the same to us.  Of course we have intelligence sharing agreements with other major countries.  Like corporations it is a transnational matter.  They probably have laws prohibiting them from spying on their own citizens.

Maybe it is like the situation amongst farmers.  If a horse or dog has to be shot the kindly neighbor is there to do the difficult but necessary thing.  Done in expectation of returned favor.  That is what friends are for.