Not to excuse the interception, but did a "top 20" nation's diplomats really use an Internet cafe to check and send email? Fake cafe or not, that seems like an awfully irresponsible act for what should be sensitive diplomatic traffic. Note that Russia was not nearly so inept; Medvedev's phone calls were encrypted, though NSA tried to decrypt (it's unspecified whether they did).

I wonder what Snowden is thinking by leaking the real cloak-and-dagger stuff though. Diplomacy has been at least somewhat adversarial since the world's "second oldest profession" came about, and the flipside to advancing your own citizens' negotiating position by spying is to allow the other nations to conspire against you behind your back.

Diplomacy is a dangerous, dangerous game to insert yourself into, Mr. Snowden, and will never have clear friends or enemies.