Voltaire said something like: "God, please protect me from my friends. I take care of my enemies."
They most certainly do:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/04/france-electron...
You know, don't judge a blog by its cover ;-).
Disappointingly and not surprisingly he didn't have a problem with the allegations against the NSA.
Something to consider is that points of interest differ within governments. For example, fugitive Marc Rich was believed to have been aided by the US State Department even as the DOJ continuously attempted to kidnap him. In other countries you even end up with military coups when one group really is unhappy with another. On the other hand, there is a lot of noise making in countries with representative elections, which means little.
Edit: I would not be surprised if we start seeing criminal indictments against executives of US internet companies in some countries.
All this makes it so terribly obvious that Europe literally is not entitled to and can not have or grow a pair of balls anymore. Europe's role is pretty much reduced to hosting the military bases and NSA spying facilities of the US.
As the worldwide balance of power continues to shift over the next decade or two, I believe Merkel's Germany is poised to be extremely relevant, even if it is so at the cost of the cohesion of the EU.
It also reaffirms to me why the UK seems to have very little interest joining the party like their neighbors. Why compete for first fiddle against a self-serving Merkel?
It'll be interesting times but I don't think it's as simple as Europe being relegated to America's extended states.
Especially in a high profile case like Snowden's.
I guess a plane ticket to a non-NATO country through back channels might be better help for people seeking protection from the US than granting refugee status.
To which several European governments, mostly the UK, but also Italy, happily cooperated. The other ones have been lucky enough not to be caught red-handed but I have little doubt that they knew perfectly what was going on (at best) or were actively providing support.
Preventing the issue on formal grounds was probably the easiest way to avoid having to protect someone in Germany from the USA - which is obviously futile.
I don't remember Merkel, or anyone else, saying that they won't even accept asylum request or that they'll refuse the request if it's made according to the law.