Do you really have to ask after the last year or more of news?

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/08/snowden-council-of-europe-t...

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/22/gchq-surveill...

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/20/gchq-targeted...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/22/nsa_gchq_...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/world/nsa-dragnet-included...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/09/nsa-spying-braz...

I mean, these are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. I've got a pretty good record of everything leaked over the last year or so on my home computer.

Oh you mean an intelligence agency whose mission is foreign intelligence is gathering intelligence on foreign entities?

You just asked me for citations, implying that you didn't believe what I wrote.

I gave you citations/articles and you reply with basically

"Well, well... of course they do that!"

For what it's worth, when you said "Civil liberties groups and charities... and allied politicians" I thought you were referring to domestic organizations/persons.

Shrug.

You mean like spying on our own senators [1]?

[1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/1...

Is that a meaningful distinction?

To the law? Yes, a huge one.