Not content to spy on American Citizens the NSA has been going whole hog in spying on other countries. For reasons completely removed from their aegis-terrorism. In this case the participants of the 2009 UN Climate Conference. While these negotiations were being discussed.
This "total information awareness"* leaves us no better than the KGB of old in their attempts to spy on as much as they could without worrying about the consequences.
The consequences seem to be missing from the NSA's mindset, we need to maintain healthy relationships with other nations. And we just can't do that if we have one on our team that snoops everywhere.
The US National Security Agency spied on the communications conducted by other governments before and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations conference held in Copenhagen, according to a report based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
A “top secret” document obtained by the Huffington Post reveals that the NSA was keeping tabs on how other countries were communicating before the conference and that the intelligence agency planned to keep its operations running through the meeting.
The document was published on an internal NSA site on the first day of the Denmark conference, December 7, 2009, and stated that “analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries’ preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberation within countries on climate change policies and negotiation strategies.”
*I learned it was impossible for me to learn everything in the world by the age of nine.