“What I do care about is that he has lifted a veil on the surveillance state that has been sorely needed for years. “
What was uncovered that was not known?
Is it worth al Qaeda or other terrorist groups having access to info wherein they may be better able to avoid detection?
How are we to proceed from here in addressing and correcting abuses said to have been unveiled by Snowden?
Then what is your problem? If everything he uncovered was already known, how can you accuse him of being a traitor?
When people like you with these illogical opinions start getting so adamant in favor of the government position, I start to suspect that you have ulterior motives for hanging around FreeRepublic.
You say that he didn't uncover anything that was unknown. I say that I heard things I didn't know, and a LOT of other people learned things that they did not know. If this was not the case no one would be talking about it. Your position also makes no sense regarding foreign governments. How can you explain a foreign government not knowing something that was already known by the general public? You can't, and I suspect it's because you are a troll.
What was uncovered that was not known?
Not by the general public, no. Nothing will happen to change any of this until people demand it of their congresscritters. Prior to Snowden's data dump, the powers that be could laugh those of us concerned about the ever encroaching survellance state off as a bunch of conspiracy freaks. That's harder to do when the MSM is reporting on it.
Some of the revelations that have come out are new.
As for Al Quada, I couldn't care less how it might or might not help them. There is an old and often quoted saying about trading liberty for the illusion of safety, and what one gets from it that is apt here. Freedom is dearly bought and cheaply traded. Waving a bloody shirt around and claiming that the government has a right ro know anything about us that they care to discover through any means they deem necessary does not enhance our security. I don't see how people can accept the fact that our government doesn't believe we have any right to privacy at all.
Many others apparently agree with me, which is why Snowden is not being as universally villified as some would like.
Al Qaeda already knows how to avoid detection: use couriers.
These snooping programs are useless for fighting real terrorist threats. In fact, they impede the fight against real terrorist threats -- if the government hadn't been so flooded with irrelevant data illegally harvested from honest citizens, they might have noticed the warning signs for the 9-11 attack (they got specific tips about foreigners wanting to learn how to fly a plane but not how to land one) or the Boston Marathon bombing (the Russians already knew about one of the bombers, and sent a warning to the US government).