The guy uncovered unethical and unjust spying and surveillance on their own people probably breaking numerous laws (not to mention Constitutional). 1984, anyone?
OMG.... I can't believe this but there is a first time for everything! I am going to AGREE with 14Russian on this topic. That does not mean I agree with anything else you say, however! So let's not get into a discussion about Atlas Shrugged anytime soon )))

I have been following the Snowden story closely and I think America is humiliating itself by pursuing him so ravenously. We are acting exactly the way we accused the USSR of acting when their defectors came to the US for asylum back in the Cold War. Times have changed and now the US is behaving like the "evil empire" in my opinion. I have been called "unamerican" and a "traitor" for saying this, but I think it is time for Americans to face facts! Our military budget is larger than the combined military budgets of the next 16 most developed countries including Russia and China! Our economy is suffering under the taxburdens of supporting this military, and this vast surveillance array we have all in the name of some fake "war on terror." But people are raging against the unemployed, and the poor, and the elderly and disabled - complaining about welfare and the cost of education, rather than discuss this sacred cow! Why do we need such an inflated military? When was the last time the US fought a "moral" war? In my personal opinion, the last time we had just cause to go to war was when Hitler invaded Europe. Everything since then has been expansion of empire.

Another thing is that the media is focusing too much on Snowden personally, rather than discussing that SACRED COW referenced above. Even Obama said that the nation needs to have a discussion about surveillance, so where is that discussion? The media is distracting everyone with the Snowden story.

It is fascinating for me, but support for Snowden may be one thing that actually reaches across ALL party lines in the US. It is one of the few things I find myself agreeing about with right wingers, libertarians, greenies, socialists, and every other existing political party in our nation. The converse, of course, is also true, in that people from every part of the political spectrum are calling him a traitor, too.

As for Putin, I think he went out on a limb to offer asylum to Snowden, but I cannot blame him for attaching the condition of "no further anti-American activities." Relations between the US and Russia are worse than I have seen in 25 years, and Putin does not want to increase tensions further. Besides that, we have to contend with Syria. Is the US going to keep backing the rebels, even though we now know that the rebel movement was co-opted by Al-Nusra? I have no idea.

On the homefront, Americans have always known that we were being spied on, I think, but the extent of that spying - the sheer vastness of it - is difficult to comprehend. It is good to have confirmation. In my opinion, Snowden broke the law. But he broke the law for the sake of a higher principle.