Snowden is as deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize as previous winners Yassir Arafat, Algore, and Barack Hussein Obama.
As for whether he's a hero or traitor . . . releasing information on how fed.gov is spying on Americans (like most of us on this forum) can be plausibly regarded as patriotic . . . but once he started releasing details of our foreign intelligence gathering, IMHO he crossed the line into treasonous territory.
With respect, the foreign intelligence stuff matters not even a thimbleful of water compared to all the oceans in the world.
The crimes he has exposed have shaken the United States. The damage the NSA did by bribing RSA to weaken its cryptographic programs can't even be calculated. Ditto the wiretapping of Google's data centers. The Verizon leak may or may not have been significant, but Boundless Informant leak taught us that the NSA is systematically targeting US citizens. It acknowledged 3+ billion segments of intelligence information on US citizens. Upstream, which is illegal wiretaps on US fiber optic backbones. XKeyscore, yet another program that spies on American internet usage. The leaks that showed the NSA violated even their own rules, which are highly illegal and unconstitutional, 2,776 times between March 2011 and March 2012. The leaks showed hundred million dollar bribes to telcos. The leaks show that the NSA routine provides intelligence on US citizen to foreign countries. Leaks that they illegally monitor the SWIFT network. Minaret leak, that the NSA and other intelligence companies illegally monitored Sen. Frank Church when he was running the Church Commission that was looking into illegal conduct committed by the intelligence committee. SYANPSE leak, illegally mapping US citizens' social media contacts and email contact lists. Leaks about NSA talking points lying about terrorism justifying the agency's surveillance programs as well as lying about legality of various projects.
This organization's head admitted to committing perjury under oath when testifying before Congress. They've committed billions of violations of US laws, as well as our Constitution. They will likely cost the US economy tens to hundreds of billions in economic loses. They've become arguably the greatest threat that the United States has ever faced.
And you're arguing that he committed treason for exposing this, because a number of his leaks exposed various legal and illegal foreign conduct?
So. Tallpine, I am to understand you believe we deliberatly launched Hellfire missiles on Muslim Wedding parties?
Uhm. Yes?
In fairness, some were misidentified targets. It happens. Others were intentional strikes, because that's when clans get together. At social functions that outweigh everyday security concerns. Also, we have intentionally killed Americans because we believed they were probably terrorists, and in other cases because they were in the same building as suspected terrorists. Holder flatly admitted a US citizen minor was killed intentionally by the US government "for being in the wrong place." As we do not have corruption of blood (this is specifically a no-no under the Constitution), everyone involved should have been dragged up on murder charges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/opinion/the-drone-that-killed-my-grandson.html?_r=0The government's stance is that if you're killed, your family has no standing to sue.
