I remember another story as well, where the journalist actually walked up the hill that blocked the view of the facility and saw the construction. It had about the same focus, but didn't go into as much detail on the computing side of the NSA, just their storage capabilities.

The knowledge that a government agency is recording everything is one of those existential horrors that slowly fades and just quietly lurks in your mind, hidden beneath the daily struggles and interests.

It predates your story by at least five years, 2007, when a Silicon Valley engineer revealed that a backbone line had been spliced and all traffic was passing to government machines.

That revelation also inspired an outraged public backlash of 'meh.'