{NSA supposedly created cryptonote because:}
Keccak hash has been chosen as a proof-of-work function in CryptoNote several months before it has been announced as SHA-3 hash function competition winner.
This isn't even correct. Keccak is not the PoW for cryptonote. Check the sources on that NSA story, its a bunch of garbage from some horrible pay-for-"news" site. OT for this thread though.