The Register: German armed forces ban MS software, citing NSA snooping

German security authorities think that the U.S. government and Microsoft has worked together to create 'back door' access to Microsoft's software, so that U.S. intelligence agencies can hack into foreign computers. Now, I'm all about conspiracies, and I can easily believe this, if only because the NSA and CIA would certainly want this kind of access, and I understand a lot of things can be made to happen when you wave the 'national security' flag. You'd think that this arrangement would have had a 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' effect, though, right? What does Microsoft get out of this deal? Wasn't it the government that pulled them into court on anti-trust charges? I'm sure a friendly chat between the National Security Adviser and the Attorney General could have cleared all this up, right?