You have no idea what I ‘imagine’ or believe. Unlike a lot of people here, I do NOT believe that all of the IC and the FBI are totally corrupt - I’ve stated before that I believe there are thousands of good, patriotic people working in these agencies. I’ve had the honor of personally knowing several of them myself and been aware of others and their stories.
But corrupt people in powerful and influential positions have created an atmosphere and precedent that discourages the good people - in fact, terrorizes them! - from coming forth with what they’ve seen and know is absolutely WRONG. And the people who created that atmosphere are EVERY BIT AS GUILTY as your ‘traitor’ Snowden is - in the long run, probably more guilty.
Snowden was a young and much more fragile man than Binney, or Drake, or the others whose lives were almost destroyed by the same crap that we’ve seen going on in other areas of government. I don’t know what was in his head, and I don’t condone everything that he did; but I know he was probably smart enough to study up on what had happened to others who may have decided to blow a whistle - and that would unhinge just about anybody.
Chances are better than even he did it for money from his Chinese handlers. You know nothing about NSA and quit lumping them all in one pot. Get back to me when you’ve worked for NSA for some years.