The deleted article is almost entirely sourced to Wayne Madsen, who has made disclosures and claims far more shocking than these in the OP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Madsen

So are these disclosures new? Whether they're a scoop or not doesnt have much to do with their actual validity, but if he's made these claims well before Snowden, then it's likely they've been debated in the past, too.