Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with...

LOL

LTC (Join to see) - Colonel; I suspect that history is going to be somewhat kinder to Mr. Snowden then expected at first.

From my foxhole, I suspected it was going on... However, there are protocols when dealing with high classified programs. Clinton could take some notes? that email server was wide open to a Battalions worth of cyber units from Russia and China? God only knows what was deleted from those emails and the damage it is/could cause. Now this program and many, many more we don't know about... who knows where this will leads us.

LTC (Join to see) - Colonel; I'd agree that there was a possibility that Ms. Clinton's eMail server was "wide open" (but that hasn't been shown to be the case yet and [assuming all of the other procedural and legal steps were properly complied with is actually irrelevant]) but there is an old maxim that people who are looking for something in one place don't find it if it is another place (and find it even less often if they don't even know that that other place exists).

I will agree that Ms. Clinton's conduct was HIGHLY ill-advised. I am still not convinced that there is a "reasonable likelihood of conviction" if a prosecution is started (and apparently the Department of Justice [which is supposed to know more about the situation than I do] shares my opinion).

So why have a government? Law enforcement? Or secrets for that matter? Snowden had other avenues to report wrongdoing legally and chose an illegal route. He didn't know what information he had and likely didn't have the whole story. He got up on his high horse and broke the law. You cannot sit there and tell me we have a duty to report law breaking and then support someone who clearly broke the law when he decided to "tell" on the government. Many of us work with secrets everyday, which the general American public will never know about, because they don't need to and it will compromise the reason for making it a secret. You're speaking of government conspiracy where there is none. Frankly it's insulting to those who do this everyday and understand what they are authorized to do, what they can't do, and what they are required to report by law. They're not idiots who blindly follow illegal orders.

Have you ever worked in Intelligence? Cyber? Handled highly classified information? What NSA does and Snowden did is not as clear cut as you believe it to be. Snowden is a traitor to his country, not a hero. The NSA as an organization does not invade our privacy without the legal authorization which falls under their jurisdiction. Could there be folks within the NSA who abuse their power and capability? Absolutely (Snowden did)! If and when they are discovered, they are punished. Same goes for those who work in any government organization.

In that vein why have a constitution? Or maybe we should make it easy and pass an amendment saying that the constitution doesn't apply to the government.

If Snowden had gone through "official" whistle blower channels we would never have heard about the programs, nothing would have been done about them.

What Snowden revealed proved that the NSA overstepped their legal authority.
https://www.accessnow.org/us-privacy-oversight-board-slams-legality-usefulness-bulk-data-collection/

I never called Snowden a hero and I'm well aware that I don't have the entire picture. Still the fact that the programs he revealed were illegal is enough to convince me he deserves a full pardon.

I'd also like to add that I don't think you'll find many outside the intelligence community who steadfastly believe that what Snowden did amounted to treason.

It is not the government's business to spy on the Citizens. The government works for the Citizens and this spying is an usurpation of power belonging to the people. It is the governments responsibility to monitor only foreign natioanals and foreign powers unless a warrant is issued.

I too worked with classified information every day and Snowden was correct to reveal this illegal federal government activity. It is frankly insulting that the federal government which is subservient to the the Citizens broke public trust to spy on the very people it is commissioned to protect. Those working within the federal government alphabet soup are not punished for doing illegal monitoring of private Citizens unless they get caught and the government can reasonably claim they acted on their own. This type of illegal activity that the federal government is requiring of these agencies is an abuse of power and must be stopped!

It is fortunate that there are Patriots who we have working on the inside of the executive branch in every agency that also work as agents for the Citizens to uphold their oath.

PO2 Robert Aitchison - You still aren't getting it. Nothing I said suggests the NSA has or should trash or ignore the Constitution. You cannot support your statement in that if Snowden had gone to the proper authorities, nothing would have been released. Also, you continue to fail to account for the fact that Snowden released more than just the information about the surveillance program. Several methods/techniques used by our intelligence community has been compromised because of him. Those within the community Snowden betrayed have absolutely no respect for him, they do not believe he acted in a responsible and patriotic manner, and he is no hero to them. Don't you think more people from that community would have stepped out and backed him up if they agreed? The reason why SOME outside the intelligence community don't think of him as a traitor is because they have no idea what he has done.

MSG Mitch Dowler - See the above and I'd like to add. If you had worked within the same community as Snowden, are you telling me you too would have fled to China followed by Russia to release information you believed to be illegal activity?