Snowden released unredacted classified documents that lead to real-world damage and potentially casualties. Compare that to wikileaks which redacted locations, IP addresses and other sensitive information.
He wasn't a hacker by any means. He was a lowly SharePoint admin that was rumoured to have been coerced remotely by the Russians.
He was angry with the NSA for being denied a promotion for TAO which drove him over the edge.
It isn't hard to theorize that Russian and Chinese assets lurk the corners of chatrooms, looking for depressed/vulnerable US assets to coerce and corrupt. Money well spent for the West's enemies.
If a single American intelligence asset lost their life because of Snowden's leaks would your opinion change?
Snowden released his intel to a single journalist each from two highly respected publications, The Washington Post and The Guardian. Releases to the general public were made in those publications only, according to the judgement and discretion of those journalists. It was the model of responsible disclosure.
Can you point to a specific article in the Washington Post or The Guardian which you believe lead to casualties?
(The rest of your comment is rumor, wild speculation, and in the case of 'lowly sharepoint admin', outright misrepresentation)
Model of responsible disclosure according to whom?
Do you realistically think the Washington Post or The Guardian would make Snowden look bad by aligning IC asset fatalities with his leaks? I doubt it.
Consider this: IP addresses and devices of Western assets were leaked in the documents. Counter-intelligence can use those to correlate known or suspected IC assets. This has real-world consequences.
The way Intelligence works is much more shrouded in secrecy. Everyone in the know knows he had privileged access via his job and leaked the entirety of the documents without redactions because he was mad at being passed up for the TAO job. His bosses were interviewed which confirms my statements - 1
Swift on Security is an example of a Twitter account with connections to IC. Her statements on the subject echo how the industry feels about Snowden. - 2
So to be clear, you assert, entirely without evidence, that Snowden leaked the documents to someone other than The Guardian / WaPo? And you further assert without evidence that these leaks included IP addresses? And your source is "everyone in the know knows", despite being "shrouded in secrecy"? We are to take the statements of NSA officials, the very ones humiliated by his leaks, at face value? Forgive my skepticism!
Also your Slate.com link contradicts your explanation for his ostensible disgruntlement - Ctl-F "TAO offered him a job". Not that it ever made the slightest bit of sense in the first place - who would banish themselves from their homeland over that? Snowden's character study is as crystal-clear as it is inconvenient to the NSA: the man was an idealist.
I‘m glad that Snowden revealed the injustices committed towards people around the world; even allies to the United States. Spying on the general public of democratic countries like my country Germany and their elected leaders is a no-no, and it doesn’t matter if a few American intelligence assets lost their life. They played with fire when they joined the criminal organizations and paid the price for it.
Snowden released unredacted classified documents that lead to real-world damage and potentially casualties. Compare that to wikileaks which redacted locations, IP addresses and other sensitive information.
He wasn't a hacker by any means. He was a lowly SharePoint admin that was rumoured to have been coerced remotely by the Russians.
He was angry with the NSA for being denied a promotion for TAO which drove him over the edge.
It isn't hard to theorize that Russian and Chinese assets lurk the corners of chatrooms, looking for depressed/vulnerable US assets to coerce and corrupt. Money well spent for the West's enemies.
If a single American intelligence asset lost their life because of Snowden's leaks would your opinion change?