The Clipper Chip was introduced in the open. They tried to push it through legislation. It's not like the NSA blackmailed Intel executives to include the capabilities secretly in their Pentium Processors without notifying their customers.

Same with the new proposed legislation. But all that demonstrates is that the NSA has an interest in being able to (legally) monitor encrypted communications. Which everyone already knows.

If someone had 'busted' the NSA trying to do something sneaky and/or covert and/or illegal, then you could argue that it's the tip of some iceberg of nefarious activity. But like I said this was all done out in the open.

You might as well say that because we know the FBI wiretaps phones through legally obtained court orders, that's the tip of the iceberg that points to millions of illegal wiretaps. It's a bad inference.