I think technically you are correct but ethically you are way off base. He did the right thing. I'd like to think that if I was in his position I would have had the balls to do what he did. Not sure that I have them.

Instead of waving the traitor flag you might look at what he exposed and get pissed about that. That's the real problem.

One could make the argument that he is a patriot and a hero. He's trying to get our country to actually uphold our constitution. Seems like he made the right choice at a huge personal cost.

You're required to report crimes in progress, and illegal orders. When the regular channels make themselves unavailable your duty still remains.

If there's a traitor, it certainly isn't the whistleblower.

> Snowden is a traitor and deserves to be locked up.

If only there were some agency in charge of national security so that we could prevent these things from happening.

Well, so was George Washington.

If the only documents he revealed were the ones that showed the communications of American citizens are being monitored and stayed in the US and defended what he did with some fortitude then maybe he would be viewed as someone who did something patriotic. Instead he fled to Hong Kong and then Russia and revealed many of the NSA's foreign ops (which makes him a traitor).

Why?

He did the public a great service, and his breaking of the law should be of no consequence in that context.

Who did he betray?