Prism

Spoke with my mother today (background: she works cyber communications and security for the Navy and is usually first or second in command where she's stationed) and she sees Snowden as a traitor (and also called him a slurry of other things).

Most of my family, being heavily conservative, feels the same. I don't see him as a traitor, just as a necessary sacrifice for international image. Basically, I'm glad he did it, but he knew what he was getting into when he did it, he fled to HK, not a very "I'm innocent of everything!" type of action; he knew he was sticking his balls into a fireplace from the start, he needs to man up and see it the rest of the way through. He's trying to sell himself as a martyr, but he doesn't realize it will sell itself much better if he just calmly accepts the court's judgment on him. If he only admitted to it because he knew they would find out anyway and was not prepared for the rest of the consequences, he's pretty silly. The government doesn't pull CSI level shenanigans in real life, but they are at least competent enough to get the job done.

Keep in mind that any opinion on Snowden, other than him being an American hero is complete nonsense regardless of her authority or work experience. Because she finds nothing wrong with the government's espionage on their own citizens, but agrees with the duplicitous accusation of the government to file criminal charges against Snowden for espionage of the United States it is clear that her dedication and service lie with the government who employs her and not with the citizens of the country.

Given the context of what Snowden sacrificed to offer a dialogue for Americans, he is representative of the very concept of free speech and freedom that President Obama preached when he stated that American security and privacy were not exclusive concepts that needed to sacrificed, one for the other. Despite the fact that he disseminated the United States government's actions of hacking other countries including tense economic and political rivals such as China, there needs to be a level of acceptance that it is not Snowden who came short of a long list of principles that are endlessly preached about and spoken in class on a daily basis. And while I do not condone breaking a job contract that stipulates you shouldn't disclose corporate secrets to rivals or other companies, I do not believe that Snowden deserves to be framed as a criminal. At worst, he should be fined for breaking his non-disclosure agreement in a legal proceeding that would occur with anyone in a court of law as an American citizen. For me personally, I don't have any reason to drink from the government Kool-Aid simply because of a relative in information related government service.

He is at the very least a vigilante, though; helpful to society in his own way, but in the end, now that his identity is out there, he should be taken in simply because if he is not it will make the US government look bad. I don't care for our government, but it's pretty clear that without it this entire planet would be a warzone; the UN doesn't do pomegranate and hasn't for a long time, there's no way they could handle things on their own.