Re: Hmm...
I think you may be attributing too much to the governments. I'd be more inclined to believe that a lot of this 'cooperation' was done between agents rather than agencies as a whole. I figure that the standard situation would be:
1) Something comes up that threatens national security (read: a politicians bank account)
2) politician goes to NSA to get more info on what is going on
3) NSA bosses pass the request down to an agent
4) Agent gathers what information they can, but comes up short on some details
5) Agent then trades with an agent at another agency for that information using something they want such as a new piece of spyware, a cache of nude pictures taken from a previous surveillance dragnet, or just information the other guy wants
6) Agent then compiles report as requested and passes it to his bosses
7) bosses pass it along to whatever politician requested the info
8) Politician then gives favors to the NSA
9) Everyone involved becomes too busy spending the new budget to ask where the data came from
Biting the hand that feeds IT
