> There's a difference between leaking things because you believe they are illegal, and leaking things because you don't like them. Exactly that's what I meant

> There's a difference between leaking things because you believe they are illegal, and leaking things because you don't like them. Exactly that's what I meant: You shouldn't just leak illegal things (because the state itself defines most often that whatever it does is legal). So we only have a moral compass left and it's understandable that those are different for each person. If Snowden thinks that "secret/confidential information on legitimate foreign intelligence operations" is not ok if the target is an ally, then that's his moral judgment and he can leak it. If you disagree, you imply that now that most of the spying on citizens is legalized (post-facto), it's cool. Or - Godwin's law to the rescue - now that the Reichtstag decided that secretly killing jews is fine, leaking is a moral offense ;)