General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What kind of coward is Edward Snowden? [View all]mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)They are illegal because they violate the 4th ammendment. The secret laws have gone too far, and in a democracy it's kind of our duty to fight against those, so I am grateful to Snowden for taking the risks he took to expose them - or confirm them. Furthermore, as this government has broken further laws about torture, specifically with reference to Gitmo and especially Manning, Snowden is smart to get the hell out of here. I don't begrudge him anything for not wanting to be tortured.
So my analogy of a woman getting beat up works in that she would be making parts of her private life less private, which is generally a bad thing, but in that case is very well justified to stop a bigger crime - getting beat up. That's what the term whistleblower means.