The law is more than the statues. The rulings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are classified, so we don't know how the statutes are being interpreted and applied. We do know, however, that the executive has a history of using bizarre legal theories to skirt the spirit of the law.
But even if Google isn't obligated to lie, it might still be lying.
Maybe Google is lying, not because it's obligated to by the law, but because it's immune from the consequences of lying and the government is leaning on them in other ways.
Maybe Google is afraid of the backlash that will follow if they don't lie.
Maybe Google has carefully written their denials to be technically true, but still hide the real extent of the data they're giving to the NSA. This was my original point, which you completely ignored.
And yes, maybe Google is being completely forthright.
We have very little information, and information we do have may be wrong. Given that, I don't think it's wise to conclude that transmitting email over an encrypted channel is enough to keep out of the hands of the NSA.
But even if Google isn't obligated to lie, it might still be lying.
Maybe Google is lying, not because it's obligated to by the law, but because it's immune from the consequences of lying and the government is leaning on them in other ways.
Maybe Google is afraid of the backlash that will follow if they don't lie.
Maybe Google has carefully written their denials to be technically true, but still hide the real extent of the data they're giving to the NSA. This was my original point, which you completely ignored.
And yes, maybe Google is being completely forthright.
We have very little information, and information we do have may be wrong. Given that, I don't think it's wise to conclude that transmitting email over an encrypted channel is enough to keep out of the hands of the NSA.