[staunch]

Your link does not support your confirmation.

> Leaks from a secret BND document suggest that its monitoring station at Bad Aibling checked whether European companies were breaking trade embargos after a request from the NSA.

If all the NSA did was look for illegal (off the books) sales of military equipment, that's exactly the kind of thing that's easy to justify ethically. If they were taking Airbus data and funneling it to Boeing, that would be highly unethical.

Is there any evidence the NSA has ever been motivated by economic espionage?

[janekm]

Indeed, the link only confirms that he allegation had been made; whether it has ever occurred is rather harder to confirm, of course.