A government is far more likely to oppress you, deny you rights, blackmail you for political reasons, etc. because it has the resources to do so.
"as the NSA grows in both size and power..."
It's really, really easy to say this living in a place where the rule of law is reasonably robust. There are many parts of the world where this isn't the case.
The point of rule of law is supposed to be that the government is bound by the laws. Calling this "robust" with regard to the NSA is the equivalent of putting ones head in the sand....
There are even more parts of the world where the "rule of law" is what opresses people rather than criminals. Dictatorships, third world monarchies, banana republics etc. And sometimes, criminals and an opressive government go hand in hand, as in some latin american countries...
I will admit though that as an American it seems weird to have a Sultan of a small district in a larger parliamentary democracy. It would be like having a King of New Hampshire....
I don't know... you're asserting as a fact here that one is more likely to be oppressed or blackmailed by the USG than by a criminal. But for blackmail alone there are thousands of criminal cases per year in the US, and an incalculable amount of "oppression" caused by criminals generally. What are the numbers for USG cases of blackmail each year? I guess they wouldn't be tallied... But I'd have to estimate that they're somewhat lower.
Asking for facts elides the far more nuanced question of whether it is good for the American Government Marketing Team to continue to operate a known blacksite when the American public is auditing security practices.