Meh - data can be slurped anywhere
You can't guarantee that your data can't be slurped somewhere along its route. It doesn't have to be on someone's network equipment - it could be a physical tap somewhere along the route (even on point-to-point). Therefore, it's largely irrelevant whether the network gear has been compromised or not.
The TLAs know this. So, sensitive traffic needs to be strongly encrypted for transit regardless.
Continuing down the logic trail: if compromise of the network gear doesn't matter, then something else is driving this behavior by the Americans. As they say in the detective novels: follow the money...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
