re: Would you pardon Edward Snowden? Chealsea Manning?

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Snowden gave up a cushy job, his family and his comfortable life to inform his countrymen of their government's lies and deceit.

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He was an unmarried childless IT contractor. He was making good money, but his employment wasn't exactly stable.

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I can't comprehend how some see him as a villain.

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That part where he traveled to Moscow and handed over a massive amount of our government's most sensitive secrets and methods to the FSB is what did it for me.

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Snowden gave up a cushy job, his family and his comfortable life to inform his countrymen of their government's lies and deceit. I can't comprehend how some see him as a villain.

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The WSJ had a pretty good piece The Fable of Edward Snowden that paints a less noble picture of Edward Snowden. As you may guess by the title, the author does not share the same opinion of Snowden as you do. But it's still a pretty good read about what he did, particularly while was in Russia... you know enemy #1 (regardless of what Trump says)

And for what it's worth, I'm a big fan of keeping the government in check. A healthy suspicion of what the government is doing is always a good thing. But there are right ways and wrong ways to do it.

Also, a lesser point. Don't give me that cushy job crap like he took that job because of its great pay and benefits. He took it with the full intention of stealing and exposing.