Look, a lot of civilians at Verizon knew what was happening, There are two sides to the information equation. The Verizon employees/management that facilitated this are also culpable. Verizon could have just told the Federal Govt to shove it.
central_va: “Look, a lot of civilians at Verizon knew what was happening...”
Why is that relevant? Are you saying it’s OK, because the companies were either strong armed or volunteered to release private information to the federal government? In other words, the government didn’t directly collect the information itself?
That still has nothing to do with Snowden and whether or not he’s guilty of treason. A whistleblower is a hero if he reveals illegal or corrupt activities. I think Snowden has revealed the government is routinely violating our 4th Amendment protections.
The Verizon screamy fit isn’t the 4th amendment issue. At most it is a canary on the FISA rubber-stamping of requests without due diligence. In the discussion as ongoing in the public, it’s primarily a vehicle for confusion.