General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons - Snowden tweet today [View all]sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Snowden seems to be motivated by a mix of job resentment and patriotism.
The NSA set themselves up for Snowden by being so secretive. Snowden did America a service - with the first 1% of docs he released. The last 99% made him a criminal, sadly. He could have made the same patriotic point by limiting disclosure.
Good odds Snowden was persuaded or recruited in some way by the Russians. And national security services believe Snowden is in part a cover for the true one or two still-uncovered Russian moles at NSA.
Ellsberg did what he did fully expecting to go to jail for life. He was more mature and thoughtful than Snowden. Snowden made a mistake defecting to Russia. Being a whistle blower comes with hard, hard choices. Your life is at risk.