Technically he breached his contract and compromised his country. If he didn't like his job, he should have quit.

So, you think supporting the criminals in charge is the best for the country? The people demonstrating in the arabian spring were doing not the best for the country? Russian opposition that fights for gay-rights or freedom of press is not the best for the country? All dictators and criminals around the world are thanking you for this line of argumentation.

And don't come with terrorism. Far more people die of traffic-accidents, obesity or smoking than from terrorism. Terrorism is only used as a cause to justify pissing on basic rights of all people. We also know already, that Prism and similar programs aren't used against terrorism. The last reveal was, that it was used against Megaupload. Not that this helps to create a valid case, so far the founder Kim Dotcom is and stays free and sued the country of compensation for the closing of Megaupload.

So, if you see a crime you walk away and don't report it?

Not if the person committing the crime runs the country and can put me away for 35 years.......

35 years. Let that sink in.

This thread borderlines itself with hypernationalistic tendencies. When people use the word "country" they really mean "nation-state" or in the context of the U.S, since there exists no single nation, "state." According to the law of the land, both Manning and Snowden did the right thing by notifying the sovereign entity (the populous) of illegal activities instituted by their employees (the government.) Morally, for anybody who prides some degree of individualism, Manning and Snowden informed the individuals (not some silly construct of a nation which doesn't exist in the U.S) about the intrusions of their individual liberties by the U.S government. All in all, they were right, the state was wrong, and that's why they were(or would be) punished.

The thing is that adult life doesn't work with cut-and-dry, idealistic notions of right and wrong. There is always a grey area, a greater good, a means to an end. This "illegal" activites twarted dozens of terror plots.

When you work for an intelligence company for a government that has a shit ton of enemies and has to protect their interests at all costs, there is no simple right and wrong. There is "do what you have to do or people die and property gets destroyed".

These guys didn't have the stomach to do what they were being paid to do......and agreed to keep confidential. Bleeding hearts have no place in a spy network.

Well yeah, that's sort of my point... I mean, looking at the list of what the guy thinks is the biggest (to help sell his book no less so he's got a firm view of the matieral).

"Collataral Murder" was the video where the reporters accidentally get killed.  Tragic, but not really something leak worthy showing systematic wrongdoing.

I mean... reading the whole list... there's really nothing there leak worthy outside maybe FBI tought people in Egypt to torture... but I think everyone already assumed that anyway, but thought it was the CIA not the FBI.

Pretty much none of that is really worthy of Whistleblowing... and the biggest bombshells aren't even about the US Government. 

The "US allowed torture in Iraq" almost sounds like one, until you realize that Iraq is infact it's own country and not a US province.  The US, and pretty much most europeon coutnries for that matter deliver prisoners to countries where they know these people will be tortured all the time.

Hell a lot of the times they export them to pro torture countries because they want them tortured.

Its ironic because Russia is even worse then the States in terms of human rights polocies.

If irony was ice cream, Snowden would have a pool filled with Vanilla

Who died or was hurt from either of their actions? Nobody. As opposed to the war-crimes exposed by Manning and the intrusion of individual rights exposed by Snowden. So your entire argument for pragmatic grey-area morality fails at that point. Furthermore, my morality argument was a separate argument from my legality one. These actions by the state are illegal according to the law of the land, that's something that is not based on morality, but representative government and ethics. Also your "greater good" comment is the ends justify means argument used by almost every totalitarian in history. 

wtf are you talking about? You're just saying things nonsense. It's like if I said I support the rights of all people, you would turn around and say "oh so you support the rights of serial killers". Listen to yourself. You're engaging in enemy creation 101. You're generalizing arguments and calling me an enemy. Your post is so full of vitriol it makes me sympathetic for anyone who has to engage in conversation with you IRL. You think you're being a leader, but in fact you're just being a bully.

Also, FYI We've also spent billions on car safety, smoking cessation, and obesity and created lots of laws to help protect our citizens from outside forces that might introduce these things on us unwillingly. Excellent fucking point.