[loginalready]

It used to be understood that in principle intelligence agencies would generally respect the law of friendly nations, and quietly and discretely brake the law in case national security was at stake.

It is and always will be a gray area.

But wherever that grey area ends, the mass violations of the civil rights of millions of citizens of friendly nations is so far in the black I'm constantly surprised people even bring up the question.

This isn't even about where the unwritten boundaries of intelligence gathering are. Those have been well and truly crossed when you start violating the civil rights of millions of innocents.

The grey area the NSA has crossed into is the one marked "hostile acts of aggression".