Originally Posted by bhutocracy

Hrm. I think that is a bit naive. The UK, US, AU, NZ and CA all spy together and share info on their citizens but we also spy on each other. The CIA was very interested in deposing our elected leader in 1973 because he wanted to close down Pine Gap (A US spy station here) and he was eventually removed from power.
Also two things to remember are that spy agencies largely identify more with other spy agencies and not the temporary elected representatives. If you've known Bob from the NSA for 30 years you're going to be more partial to him that the idiot politician who just got elected that is against your own personal political ideology. Also more importantly, like the military the spy agencies function largely as a lubricant to the country's corporate interests even if that is ultimately a second order purpose. It's a function not only of carving out a larger tax base by winning more contracts but also ensuring a country's infrastructure is more efficient for a better industrial base. Money is almost as important as military secrets. Look at what the soviets tried to steal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sabotage
Also in the 80's the US sold us purposely crippled hornets that had bad radar so we spied on them and hacked them to get them working properly.

I guarantee you Germany is spying the shit out of the US.