[Hoot Gibson]

I heard on the news late in the week, that there have been other NSA/CIA employees that chose to question the practice of information 'gathering' on individuals. One of those who chose to challenge legitimacy wound up taking his case to court. Any body on here remember hearing one word about it? I know I don't. The would be whistle blowers of the recent past have been dispatched so quickly and news of their stories buried so effectively, nobody has heard a thing about all of this. So, I ask you, what would it take to get America's attention on this matter? Somebody like Snowden who is willing to martyr himself to get the word out?

Of course he will be maligned for his action and yet, in view of the failed attempts of his cohorts for having taken what may be considered to be the appropriate channels to make their cases, who can really blame him? Gotta give him credit for one thing. At least now we all know about it and we're asking questions. Snowden might be a lot of things but, no evidence revealed to date puts him in the company of traitors. If Iran didn't know we were watching them closely, which I can't imagine they would be that slow on the uptake, even that gives me hope. Between our bumbling joke of a state department and a DOJ that thinks America is still in the Martin Luther King era, I didn't think we could keep anything a secret.

I agree that if Snowden had chosen to register his complaints through the "proper channels" in this corrupt administration, then he would have lost his job and we would never have heard of him or of the PRISM program. I don't fault him for what he has done so far, but people who break the law must be held accountable. Snowden seems to understand the risk that he is taking and prepared to accept the consequences of his actions. I hope that those consequences do not include torture at the hands of the Chinese government. For a 29-year old man who had a bright future ahead of him only a few weeks ago, Snowden has taken on a big burden.

If Snowden is found guilty of doing nothing but making American citizens aware that their own government has been building a huge database that deprives us of our Fourth Amendment rights and could be misused for political gain, than Obama's successor can grant him a presidential pardon later.