Snowden had just as much right to expose NSA as the NSA has to spy on the American People: absolutely none. Either they are both traitors or neither are traitors.
Why does anyone who can prove illegality have no more right than the criminal? Is it as criminal to fight State crime as to enforce it? What makes the NSA or any organ of government sacrosanct? Is the power of the state to suppress its citizens morally equal to the sovereignty of the individual and to the inalienable rights of the people to resist?
Define hero. Tell us why the NSA is heroic. Why is tyranny not treasonous against a free Republic and the concept of individual liberty? Are all laws just, by virtue of their existence. Do laws exist in a separate space with no relationship to concepts of justice?
Will you go quietly when personal information gained covertly is used against you, rather than commit *treason* against The State? What prompts such rigid obeisance to oppression?
IMO, your statement of equality of treason between NSA and Snowden is simply facile. This is not an abstract argument. It impacts the entire world and every individual in it. Advocating allegiance to any act carried out under color of law is demanding victims participate in their own abuse.