I suppose my original post was needlessly ambiguous. I was a bit apprehensive that the entire comment section would resemble the first few comments, where people would uncritically blame the US and insist that the government was out to get Snowden.

    What is the other direction to to skeptical in?

Many on HN are very skeptical of the US/UK governments (generally for good reason), but seem to lack a similar level of skepticism for stories that make the governments look bad. That's the 'other direction' which I was implying.

If some percent of stories that make the government look good are misleading / planted / etc, then logically, some percent of those which make them look bad are likely wrong too.

    And how does bugging that embassy relate to terrorism?

It doesn't really, the response to articles like "FBI busts terror cell" was just the first example of government mistrust that came to mind.