There are many, many, many former Intelligence and Counter Intel people (probably in many countries too) who when they hit a situation in the course of their official functions that raises internal morality questions, they do the honorable thing. They resign from this or that program, or leave the service entirely, but they also keep to their oath and what Secret meant, and that will always mean Secret until someone else in a position of authority say it isn't Secret anymore.

Snowden, by his own words at press conferences, began being 'troubled' early in his association with the CIA. An Honorable person would have bowed out then. Snowden was/is not an Honorable person.

There is no one on this board who has not watched spy movies or read a spy novel. All of us understand that successful spying involves deception and sometimes not following the rules the other side thinks you should. Snowden watched those movies too. He intentionally sought a job with an agency that historically has been as deep into deception and skulduggery as can be imagined. Although I lived through the period of the House Assassination hearings, Snowden learned of them in school, so it was no surprise to him that we do that kind of thing sometimes, so he joined up. In Search of Enemies, Inside the Company and Decent Interval have been on book shelves for decades. Long enough so Snowden has both eyes open when he applies for his intelligence job.

Were there screwups in the decision to continue his clearance? Hell yeah. As soon as it was learned he was faking a college degree (you call this the mark of an honorable heroic person?) that didn't exist, that should have ended his career. Instead due to multiple screwups (the subject of multiple investigations and procedural overhauls all by themselves) some dumb person gave him access to things they shouldn't.

If I wanted to speculate I think Snowden knew his multiple falsehoods on his application were being uncovered and what he did to get fired at CIA was gonna be forwarded to the NSA. In the US if you lie on an EQIP (classified job application or SF84, 85, 86 et al) you are probably in for some legal expense as you try to avoid jail.

Snowden got a little panicky I think, knew he had to run and decided stealing documents might either give him a little insurance or bankroll the flight.

Like I wrote earlier, there is nothing new in the way of revelations that other similar thieves had not already talked about decades ago. Okay the computers are no longer driven by punch cards, so the technology is better and it is all more efficient. Everything he has released papers about was either (even if they pretend they didn't know) authorized by Congress and the Senate (much of it actually written into the Public Laws of the land) or approved by a Secret Treaty. Yes, some International Treaties are Secret and remain so for a very long time. Teddy R's 1904/1905 approval of the Japanese invasion of Korea is a good example.

At no time in past 40 years have you heard any Commander-in-Chief say while under an oath, we will now stop doing these things. You probably aren't going to either. That is the Universe you live in. You will never be King so there is nothing you can do about it. Even if you were the King, doing the same thing is essential to your survival.

(from another Forum)

Good analysis.

The main difference between a whistle blower and a traitor is that the traitor reveals classified documents while the whistle blower just points out wrongdoing or excessive spending.