The loyalty is to the agency,not the constitution. Snowdon is as good as dead
I used to have a pretty high security clearance in the DOD.
Even when I quit the feds, I was not even remotely tempted to reveal any shred of classified information.
But then again, the NSA wasn't unconstitutionally collecting personal data on USA citizens, as far as I knew, way back then.
Adjust the times and the circumstances...I might have done what Snowden did. Hard to decide, based on the limited amount of data/propaganda that is available to me now.
I'm still ambivalent as to his status as whistleblower or traitor.
It's possible he is equally both, given what little we all think we know, now.