Heh...I certainly had a good chuckle at this comment. I don't honestly think that the NSA ever paid more than lip-service to the "war on terror". They've been doing the same job since long before Sept. 11, 2001. Before the "war on terror" it was the "cold war", there just happens to have been an awkward gap in between...
The NSA is in the business of Signals Intelligence. Their job, plainly stated, is to have access to as much communication between non-US entities as humanly possible. What makes their job difficult is that, over the course of the last few decades, it's become increasingly the case that much of the communication between non-US entities travels via US-based channels using technology originated in the US. Somewhere along the line, when forced to balance "as much communication" and "non-US entities", the NSA clearly chose in favor of accessing those communications at any cost.
The core cause there would seem to be sharing comm channels with foriegn actors--the same thing that makes our position with regards to the 'net so awesome also means that the NSA is kind of forced to get involved closer to home. It's a tricky tradeoff.
It's the same reason you never see James Bond negotiating with foreign heads of state. You don't send an assassin to do a diplomat's job. Everything that is being revealed about the NSA's actions, this buying of influence especially, is positively reprehensible...BUT it is important to keep an eye on where the blame really lies: with the people that let their assassins dictate their foreign policy and domestic priorities.
If "non-US entities" includes businesses outside the US as well, I'd agree. Revelations recently [1] that the spying went beyond countries/heads of state. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that companies were being targeted for US based companies' benefit.
The NSA is in the business of Signals Intelligence. Their job, plainly stated, is to have access to as much communication between non-US entities as humanly possible. What makes their job difficult is that, over the course of the last few decades, it's become increasingly the case that much of the communication between non-US entities travels via US-based channels using technology originated in the US. Somewhere along the line, when forced to balance "as much communication" and "non-US entities", the NSA clearly chose in favor of accessing those communications at any cost.