Whistle-blowers.

The plight of Edward Snowden presents yet another dilemma for people other than U.S. citizens whose natural inclination is to support the doctrines of 'freedom', 'democracy' and, the 'rule of law' widely expounded by our 'powerful friend' throughout the world. In the case of Snowden, we are told he is a fugitive traitor because he 'blew the whistle' on what he considered to be un-constitutional secret government-sponsored eaves-dropping and mass-gathering of private communications by intelligence agencies.

We are asked to believe that the U.S. government would never break there own laws in carrying out such activities. Skepticism reigns supreme, because there are many 'friends' of the U.S. who would also consider that covert murder of assessed 'terrorist leadership' figures via 'drone' technology (and, of course, the 'collateral damage' to innocent by-standers) would also be sorely testing the moral thrust of the U.S. constitution. Similarly, the operation of concentration camps like Gitmo, where people were/are detained for extra-ordinary lengths of time without formal charges being laid under the pretence that they were 'prisoners of war' (un-declared BTW) ... whilst freely admitting that the manouevre was designed to circumvent U.S. civil law!

Ergo, people can't be blamed for supporting brave (if foolish) men like Snowden for trying to inform their fellow citizens (and the rest of the world) that U.S. propaganda about freedom, democracy and, the rule of law isn't necessarily what drives the actions of the U.S. government. Hypocrisy comes to mind.

In a different time, Benjamin Franklin became a national hero for leaking evidence that a trusted ally in the 18th century fight for independence (Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson) was actually a British spy undermining the efforts of American colonists to obtain redress of wrongs from the home country.

Go figure.