Meet RAMPART/BLARNEY/MYSTIC - the NSA's "unconventional special access program" partnering with international agencies to capture - but not collect (though there are exceptions) 'data' directly from the world's fiber-optice cables. The following map shows there is plenty of places to hop on the pipe and suck out as much information as they'd like but it's all good, as NSA notes in the leaked docs - "partnering with Foreign SIGINT partners to enable access to foreign intelligence" as the NSA shows "how to find target communication on a typical fiber optic cable."

Here's the problem...

And here's the target...