The recent scandal involving the spying of the NSA on the American and global populace has led to a large political fallout in the aftermath. Now, the Washington Post reports that the NSA has been entering into secretive agreement with private fiber optic cable companies in order to obtain their data.

The NSA spaying, which was first exposed by former employee Edward Snowden, has led to significant backlash from European countries who feel betrayed by America, leading most recently to a failed trade agreement with France. 

Reportedly, one method used by the NSA was to enter into contracts with the companies that run the trans-Atlantic fiber optic cables from America to Europe. Apparently those agreements weren't always mutually agreed upon either.

"Our telecommunications companies have no real independence in standing up to the requests of government or in revealing data," said Susan Crawford, a Yeshiva University law professor and former Obama White House official. "This is yet another example where that's the case."

So far officials on Capitol Hill have been very hushed about the NSA's spying program and have yet to admit any wrongdoing despite the widespread public backlash. They have said, however, that the secret nature of their agreements with the fiber optic companies were for the greater good of the country.

"[PRISM's data collection] has been one of our most important tools for the protection of the nation's -- and our allies' -- security. Our use of these authorities has been properly classified to maximize the potential for effective collection against foreign terrorists and other adversaries," stated the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Prior to 9/11, the U.S. had much more restrictive policies regarding which data could and could not be accessed for the sake of national protection. An inspector general's report in 2009 described the bureaucracy that used to be in place to prevent what the NSA now does with little intervention.

"Because of language used in the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance] Act in 1978, NSA was required to obtain court orders to target e-mail accounts used by non-U.S. persons outside the United States if it intended to intercept the communications at a webmail service within the United States. Large numbers of terrorists were using such accounts in 2001," said the report.

Of course, this is no longer the case. With the passage of the President's Surveillance Program, the report said, the United States "significantly increased [NSA's] access to transiting foreign communications." The only question that remains now is, how much more access will they be granted?