More NSA

So now the NSA is under fire in the media for using cookies? Speaking as a web developer it's difficult to do anything interesting without using them.

On a more troubling note, it seems to have occurred to no one in the punditsphere as to why should the NSA eavesdrop on Americans at all? I recall reading somewhere a while back that there was a reciprocal arrangement with the British version of the NSA that would allow the NSA to eavesdrop on Britons and the Brits would eavesdrop on Americans? It was all nice and legal, and accomplished the same objective.

As I said before, I had just assumed they were already doing this.

Two reasons come to mind as to why not:

1. They didn't want the British to know, which doesn't really seem that likely
2. They're using, if not a new technology, then a new technique to determine who to wiretap, and they were applying it retroactively to already recorded conversations. Also they're monitoring patterns more than anything. This would allow them to profile effectively, without actually saying the word profiling, which makes everyone happy.