Snowden’s lawyer compares him to a runaway slave using the Underground Railroad

[Demeter]

112. Are you telling me Chelsea Manning's life was not threatened?

What about the innocents in Gitmo? And yes, some have been judged innocent, but they are still imprisoned there...

Or the "collateral damage" in drone strikes? Women, children, wedding parties?

This government has shown precious little concern for people, including its own citizens, or the Rule of Law, which has been completely abandoned in civil and criminal cases, even to the point of insisting on carrying out the death penalty on people who are patently not guilty, whenever it's convenient for the abuser.

Please spare me your indignation. Edward Snowden fulfilled the first and highest duty of an American citizen: he called his country to task for violating its own Constitution. That he succeeded so completely is a tribute to his keen observation of how other whistleblowers tried (and failed), his impressive intelligence and problem-solving ability, and his strength of character.

He could have kept pulling down the big bucks, living a cushy life in a tropical paradise, ignoring the crime, but HE KNEW THAT WAS WRONG. So he did the only morally, ethically right thing he could. And he did it in a smart way, that actually made reform possible.

And if you think his life wasn't threatened and still isn't, I don't think there's anything that can help you. Whether it's due a failure of imagination or education, your chances of survival are much less than Snowden's in similar circumstances.