Did you read the linked message? Assange is citing claims from a number of other sources. He made very few claims of his own. The messages ends with:

> Is the NSA really snooping on the Net? If they are, would that violate the agency's charter, which specifically prohibits it from spying within the US? "Well, Net traffic is routed from God knows where to God knows where around the world," says George Washington University Professor Lance Hoffman, a professor of Communications and Telecommunications Systems Policy at George Washington University. "So if the NSA is doing this, they could say they are not violating their charter not to spy in the US. That's the thing. Intelligent routers send stuff any which way."

Which claim is wrong?

In terms of your claim, it's worth looking at page 28, where it specifically states that "two of the most productive SIGINT collection partnerships that NSA has with the private sector are with COMPANY A and COMPANY B. These two relationships enable NSA to access large volumes of foreign-to-foreign communications transiting the United States through fiber-optic cables, gateway switches, and data networks. They also provide foreign intelligence authorized under the FISA. "

It is clear on page 29 that "COMPANY A and COMPANY B" approached the NSA after 9/11 to offer further assistance, but this contact was, according to the report, made via an existing NSA contact, and the new approach was regarding call records, not internet traffic.

It is not at all clear what portion of the interception described on page 28 and top of page 29 started before 9/11, but it is worth noting that this interception specifically occurs in the section about "history of NSA Partnerships with the Private Sector" and not under the subsequent "Partnerships after 11 September 2001" section.

You are right that the report appears to support your claim that the NSA scaled up after 9/11, but it in no way makes clear from what foundation the scaled up.

I read them, and the bottom of page 28 too. Here's an attempt at a fair summary: "Since world war 2, the NSA has had partnerships with about 100 companies to snoop. Two of the most useful ones started in 2001."

It doesn't say "the other ninetysome companies did not provide internet surveillance before 2001" or "things like hacking belgacom started after 2001" or "we started intercepting cisco shipments after 2001" or "none of the less useful internet surveillance partnerships started before 2001".

Ya know, if the NSA did have a presence in NAPs and other backbones in the 90s, the employees there would know. You can't take over an entire floor or wing of a building and make it restricted to people with clearance without anyone noticing.