Folks need to remember that Snowden embarked upon his contract with the intention of disclosing secrets and that his major initial heartache was that Obama broke his promise to close Gitmo.
Also, remember, Snowden didn’t go to a member of Congress (such as Rand Paul) of the media to reveal this. He went to China. Then Russia. Now Venezuela.
And he has threatened to reveal other secrets as well.
Finally, he is the first US person with a security clearance to publicly state that Stuxnet was a joint US/Israeli operation. What possible “patriotic” motivation could he have had for that revelation???
He cannot get a fair trial here in a secret court. He is forced to accept help from wherever possible now. The countries that are offering help are countries that are willing to thumb their noses at the USA imperialistic government.
"And he has threatened to reveal other secrets as well."
I hope he reveals every unConstitutional secret that exists.
Not really. The Israelis themselves released that info after they got upset at Obama for leaking that the US was responsible.
His views fit with those of libertarians like Ron and Rand Paul very consistently. They hate when big government takes away the civil liberties of U.S. citizens but they also hate when big government intervenes inside foreign countries. Let's not forget Rand Paul has ranted against the use of drones not just on American soil but also against al-Awlaki in Yemen. The traditional conservative usually agrees with half of what the libertarians think in this case and others. At least what Snowden has released is specifically consistent with his ideological beliefs, and not the random document dump that Wikileaks and Bradley Manning did which exposed both random trivial matters and the identities of agents which put them at risk.
I think his hand was forced as far as putting his name and face out there, especially once reporters started overhearing government sources say they wanted the leaker to be "disappeared." If his name wasn't out, he could be taken out in the middle of the night and no one would ever know what happened.
As for Putin, at least he is extremely patriotic and fighting hard for his country's interests on the international stage. If only we had a president who cared about our country that much.