Is Edward Snowden a Traitor?

Legally, I think that Edward Snowden is a traitor.  It would seem that a person working for the NSA and having access to the things he claims to know about has a top-secret clearance.  That being the case, he shouldn't have publicly disclosed this information.  He can't just tell everyone, including our enemies, what clandestine programs we are using.  Who is this guy to decide what deserves to be done and what is unconstitutional?

I also believe this program to be intrusive on our freedoms.  I fear that the government could take this information gathered and learn things about my personal beliefs and politics.  I could be punished for taking the wrong political stance.  Will the federal government be disciplined enough to stick the goals at hand and just monitor for links to terrorism?  Am I safe with this president and administration and free to speak my mind without ramifications?  I do not trust the government with anything these days.

I also think that collecting all this data has produced "information overload," and that could have caused us to miss something important that is buried in the pile.  If all of this data is such a great way to stop terrorism, how did the bombing happen in Boston at the marathon?  Did that incident get missed because we were monitoring too many people that have no connection to terrorism?  Wouldn't it have been more beneficial to take the Russian intelligence more seriously that warned us to watch the Tsarnaev brothers?  What if we had closely monitored their telephone calls and Internet visits?  Would we have stopped this attack?  We will never know.  How seriously were the warnings taken?  What did the FBI do with the warning?

Do I want my Internet and telephone records monitored by the government without any cause?  No.  Should they demonstrate probable cause before getting access to my private life?  Yes, they should get a warrant.  On the other hand, I want the feds to protect us from terrorist attacks.  So, I think it is more productive to more thoroughly investigate people that have demonstrated that they pose a threat.  The "shotgun" method of just scattering your resources widely and randomly across everyone in the country has got to be less productive than something targeted tightly on a smaller group that has demonstrated that they are dangerous.

This NSA program may have prevented terrorist attacks.  It's hard to tell if those attacks would have been stopped in other ways without the program.  The NSA and the president say that no one had their actual conversations or emails read.  They say that this is legal, because the actual content wasn't reviewed.  Do you believe them?  Were the government officials lying, or was Edward Snowden lying?  Did Edward Snowden exaggerate his expertise and knowledge?  I'm not sure.  It's all a dangerous MessAPolitico that is infringing on our rights and freedoms, and Mr. Snowden is a traitor for violating the trust he was given.