A few "three-dot" replies for you.

...not everyone needs first-person reporting (though, granted, most do). I was there in 2006. I know what the country looks like and the political/military situation there.

...yeah, I saw that about TALON. Keep in mind, though, that if the DoD is getting rid of TALON and developing ANOTHER program, you can bet that "other program" is already in place and the FBI is getting a data dump. My guess is that the data the FBI is getting is old news and the new program is in the mold of real-time monitoring of all communications going through the super-computers and spy satellites.

...so what has changed in the attitudes? Go back to 1979. America pulls a coup in Iran in 1953, removes the democratically elected leader, installs a brutal dictator, and in 1979, when the Iranians take back their government, our government, media and citizens are screaming bloody murder because they took hostages while they did so. Go back to 1983. Israel invades Beirut and hundreds, if not thousands, are massacred by a Christian Lebanese militia while the IDF keeps everyone penned in for it. When our forces show up, and provide cover for the IDF, we get our Marine barracks bombed and how loud were we screaming then? Go back to 1991. We get bases into Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Oman, among other Arab countries, and 14 years later, we flipped off the Arabs and told them "we aren't leaving!" When the Khobar Towers got bombed, how loud did we scream? Like I said... what's new? We've been pissing on the Arab countries and people for decades, then screaming how we need to kill them because they stand up to us.