Snowden deliberately looked at the outcomes of several whistleblowers before him, and concluded (rightly) that nothing would change. Bill Binney and Thomas Dra

Snowden deliberately looked at the outcomes of several whistleblowers before him, and concluded (rightly) that nothing would change. Bill Binney and Thomas Drake were both NSA whistleblowers who tried to go through proper channels, including superiors and the Congressional intelligence committees. Drake was charged after showing illegal spying documents to a journalist, but they dropped the case, eventually, and he ended up working at an Apple store. Binney never revealed sensitive documents, and as a result, he wasn't able to get anyone to investigate his criticisms. But in retaliation for speaking up to Congress, the NSA revoked his security clearance and railroaded him out of business. Peyton Manning and Assange are also good non-NSA examples of how whistleblowers are actually treated. Finally, Snowden did not flee to Russia. He went to Hong Kong because of its strange quasi-independent status, and was trapped in Russia en route to Central America.