ACLU: Edward Snowden is a Whistleblower

[Benton D Struckcheon]

77. One more time, as ignoring this is high art around here

It's actually some very specific stuff that he himself said. This is why they want him, both the USG and, no doubt, Russia, assuming they haven't already gotten this info out of him.
Here's a description of Snowden's "lawyer":

A supporter of President Vladimir Putin who supported Putin's election campaign last year, Kucherena also has a legal practice in Moscow that takes on high-profile cases.
He also sits on the "public council" of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which was created by Putin in 2006.
According to its website, the council works to "develop a relationship" between the security service and the public. Its fifteen members have to be approved by the head of the FSB.

So, Snowden is being "represented" by a guy who sits on a board all of whose members have to be approved by Russia's FSB, but Snowden isn't giving the Russians anything? He really isn't telling them a thing? How naive do you have to be to believe crap like that?

Now, to what Snowden actually said.
Note carefully that Snowden said this, not Wikileaks, or Assange, nor is this some interpretation someone else put on his words.

He.
Said.
This.

It makes him a spy. He is now in the hands of Russia and the FSB, as we can see from the above, and so our intel folks have to assume that everything he knows, they know.

What Snowden May Know About Human Ops

Beyond technical systems, U.S. officials are deeply concerned that Snowden used his sensitive position to read about U.S. human assets, for example spies and informants overseas as well as safe houses and key spying centers.
They worry this recent quote from Snowden was not an exaggeration: ”I had access to the full rosters of everyone working at the NSA, the entire intelligence community, and undercover assets all over the world. The locations of every station, we have what their missions are, and so forth.”
So it’s not just about what he took, but what he knows, officials emphasize. Officials describe Snowden as a walking treasure trove, a dream for foreign intelligence services. One intelligence official called Snowden and his cache an “entire U.S. government problem.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/officials-how-edward-snowden-could-hurt-the-u-s/

So, two things:

1 - This compromises all of US intelligence. This has nothing whatsoever to do with anything regarding the NSA. Zip. It's a simple betrayal of the US. Period, the end. Remember, this isn't speculation on what he took, it's him admitting that he took this stuff, the names, the missions, the whole freakin thing.
2 - It also compromises future intelligence. Now if the US wants to do something overseas, no one is going to want to do it for the very good reason they wouldn't want to be outed just because of some contractor with access to all this stuff.

This is way, way, way beyond being a whistleblower on the domestic side of the NSA. This is breathtakingly over the line. It has precisely NOTHING to do with the Fourth Amendment.
All countries spy. Reveal who and where their spies are, and they will, every one, mercilessly track you down.
Snowden will be no different.

What Snowden did is blindingly obvious, if you are paying any attention at all: he is engaged in high-level betrayal that he is deliberately covering up with a few spicy disclosures about the NSA and what it does. The overbroad FISA warrants are being addressed, as the ACLU notes. His disclosures about our spying activities? Well, that's an entirely different story.