Your link does not support your confirmation.<p>&gt; <i>Leaks from a secret BND document suggest that its monitoring station at Bad Aibling checked whether European companies were breaking trade embargos after a request from the NSA.</i><p>If all the NSA did was look for illegal (off the books) sales of military equipment, that&#x27;s exactly the kind of thing that&#x27;s easy to justify ethically. If they were taking Airbus data and funneling it to Boeing, that would be highly unethical.<p>Is there any evidence the NSA has ever been motivated by economic espionage?