"Edward Snowden broke the law by releasing classified information. This isn't under debate"

[riderinthestorm]

194. Snowden wasn't allowed to go through any whistleblowing channels

as a national security contractor. The Whistleblower Protection Act doesn't cover them.

http://my.firedoglake.com/mspbwatch/2013/06/09/the-newly-passed-federal-contractor-whistleblower-protection-law-would-not-have-helped-edward-snowden/

Last December, Congress passed (and the President signed), the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013. Contained in that bill was section 828, now codified at 41 U.S.C. 4712, which, beginning July 1, 2013, will protect disclosures made by government contractors to any member of Congress, an Inspector General, the GAO, a contract oversight employee in an agency, authorized DOJ or law enforcement agencies, a court or grand jury, or a management official at the employing contractor with authority to investigate wrongdoing.

However, and this is a big however, there is an exception for “any element of the intelligence community, as defined in section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 401a (4))” or to

any disclosure made by an employee of a contractor, subcontractor, or grantee of an element of the intelligence community if such disclosure—

(A) relates to an activity of an element of the intelligence community; or
(B) was discovered during contract, subcontract, or grantee services provided to an element of the intelligence community.