Yep. I guarantee that as well as taking the process through the courts, they have also been obeying the existing law. They have no choice.

"Are you suggesting that if in the event of a CEO or shareholders of multinational corporations deciding not to comply with secret orders then they will be labeled by the state to the public as terrorists and national security threats?"

or child molesters, or rapists, or tax fraudsters, or anything that can be found and has the smallest chance of sticking. There is a pretty good history of this, including Assange, and the CEO of some telco whose name I forget. It is a pretty standard way for Intelligence departmentsto get what they want, see the history of intelligence companies.

The NSA have access to all our communications, finding something to use as blackmail isn't going to be hard.

"If one needs the populace at large in order to discern whether the actions undertaken by the state or any of it's outsourced entities are reprehensible or not, they we have bigger problems at hand…"

we honestly do. The actions of the state are moving beyond the common understanding of the social contract.