I know, I didn't say that they found an NSA backdoor smoking gun, but it still seems suspicious to me that the NSA got to dictate anything about what should happen in ME. I remain a conspiracy theorist. I really don't see a market demand for all hardware since 2007 to have this built-in by both duopolists.
So the fact that the NSA doesn't like ME on their machines either is evidence that they put ME on the machines in the first place? Those two things are unrelated at best.
The NSA gets to dictate to Intel what it wants in the chips because the US government is an absolutely huge customer. Hell, Intel has an entire subsidiary devoted to selling chips to the federal government (https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/08/30/intel-f...). And if the NSA says computers must meet these standards to be able to interact with classified data, well then Intel better make it possible for their chips to meet those standards or they stand to lose a lot of money. That's why they get a special kill switch for ME.
Which isn't to say that the NSA could use that influence to inject a backdoor. They can't refuse to certify a computer for handling classified information because the manufacturer didn't do something to their other computers.
