It's a conundrum this whole Snowden / NSA issue. Because he is a traitor to the cause of us funding our own surveillance program which denies us any freedom of privacy. He is also a hero by pointing out that very same destruction of personal privacy, I.E. we've been, and continue to fund extravagantly a violation of the very constitution that binds us to our government, and is supposed to limit it, and prohibit it from going this far. His personal motives and politics actually don't matter if the truth has been exposed as a result of his actions.
The fact that he's holed up in Russia somewhere should speak volumes to those who think this US government can be trusted by the American people. Our greatest enemy is ourselves.
The question is how do we beat ourselves?
How can this genie ever be put back in the bottle?
You have stated the situation very well, and makes it understandable to me why I am having so much trouble deciding if he is a hero or a traitor. (Anybody else out there having doubts about the originator of this whole patriot act crap?)