Edward Snowden: Spy or Whistleblower?

Snowden’s leaks didn’t harm national security

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9/05/2015: Edward Snowden Speaks Out: “Hillary Clinton", "The Donald", & "Freedom"

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"In March 2014, Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee, "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden … exfiltrated from our highest levels of security … had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques and procedures."[86] When retired NSA director Keith Alexander was asked in a May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, Alexander answered, "I don't think anybody really knows what he actually took with him, because the way he did it, we don't have an accurate way of counting. What we do have an accurate way of counting is what he touched, what he may have downloaded, and that was more than a million documents."

No way of knowing how much damage he did.

I gotta say he comes across as being really intelligent in this interview, I always pictured him as being a shy jerky douchebag nerd.

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I believe Edward Snowden's intention was to be a whistleblower on the government gathering too much information on all citizens. In other words it was the U.S. government that was spying on the people.

"You're Being Watched": Edward Snowden Emerges as Source Behind Explosive Revelations of NSA Spying

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Originally posted by RJHinds
Snowden’s leaks didn’t harm national security

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I'm not sure on this one. I don't like Mr. Snowden's methods, but I admire with his motives. There are far too many "dirty little secrets" our government keeps under wraps under the guise of "national security"

Surely a spy is per definition working for a state?

Originally posted by bill718
I'm not sure on this one. I don't like Mr. Snowden's methods, but I admire with his motives. There are far too many "dirty little secrets" our government keeps under wraps under the guise of "national security"

I am not sure that if he had used another method things would have turned out any better, since he is fighting against a powerful government and he would certainly be sitting in prison right now.

Originally posted by bill718
I'm not sure on this one. I don't like Mr. Snowden's methods, but I admire with his motives. There are far too many "dirty little secrets" our government keeps under wraps under the guise of "national security"

Reminds me of the scene in Casablanca when the French chief of police blows his whistle and announces Nick's Place is shut down, when Bogart asks why he says "I'm shocked ...SHOCKED to find gambling going on here" then two seconds later an employee hands him a big wad of bills and says "your winnings, sir".
So the Big Bad USA monitors radio air traffic of all sorts ....OMG stop the presses......so does every other modern country as part of their national security.

Originally posted by shavixmir
Surely a spy is per definition working for a state?

wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_the_Spy

Originally posted by shavixmir
Surely a spy is per definition working for a state?

Erm... industrial spionage?