He may not be the "enemy of the people", but is his the enemy of the government. Being for the people doesn't always make you right either, Robespierre believed strong in the Revolution but he and his fellow Jacobins of The Mountain were responsible for the "Reign of Terror" intended to root out counter-revolutionary sentiment "for the good of the people". As only one example, a woman was guillotined for exclaiming "a fig to the nation!".
So let's not pretend that being for the people automatically makes all of your subsequent actions right or moral.
On the other hand, the USG is the one entity chartered by "We the People of the United States", which makes me always at least initially suspicious of people whose plan is to hurt the government (which must almost invariably hurt the people, as long as the government stands).
But independent of whether Snowden is fighting the people or the government, the bigger question is whether his actions have hurt the people. In many cases they have.
Leaking details of NSA attacks on Chinese networks doesn't help the American people. Nor does leaking details about "targeted access operations" (which, since they must be targeted, cannot be used for mass surveillance essentially by definition).
I could go on and on, but the point is simply that Snowden has indeed thrown a few bones with civil liberty implications. But that's not all that he has leaked, and given that he claimed from the beginning that he was very careful in what he selected, it is proper to hold him accountable for his actions, insofar as they do end up being against the American people.
Let me give a facetious answer: Is terrorism the only thing that can harm the American people in the international world?
NSA has a much wider remit than counter-terrorism, and for good reason.
It was not that long ago when European companies were routinely using bribery to land contracts at the expense of American companies, bribes which were sometimes detected and revealed to the world thanks to NSA. When the contract was re-competed without the bribe the American company often won, funny that...
So let's not pretend that being for the people automatically makes all of your subsequent actions right or moral.
On the other hand, the USG is the one entity chartered by "We the People of the United States", which makes me always at least initially suspicious of people whose plan is to hurt the government (which must almost invariably hurt the people, as long as the government stands).
But independent of whether Snowden is fighting the people or the government, the bigger question is whether his actions have hurt the people. In many cases they have.
Leaking details of NSA attacks on Chinese networks doesn't help the American people. Nor does leaking details about "targeted access operations" (which, since they must be targeted, cannot be used for mass surveillance essentially by definition).
I could go on and on, but the point is simply that Snowden has indeed thrown a few bones with civil liberty implications. But that's not all that he has leaked, and given that he claimed from the beginning that he was very careful in what he selected, it is proper to hold him accountable for his actions, insofar as they do end up being against the American people.