Al Gore was at the Southland Technology Conference in Nashville, Tennessee when he was posed the question. Is Edward Snowden a traitor or a whistleblower and Gore’s response is quite interesting.
“I hear this question all the time. I’m like most people: I don’t put him in either one of those categories. But I’ll be candid and give you want you want. If you set up a spectrum. ”
The interviewer asked him to clarify: “How would you define it?”
Gore replied: “I would push it more away from the traitor side. And I will tell you why. He clearly violated the law so you can’t say OK, what he did is all right. It’s not. But what he revealed in the course of violating important laws included violations of the US constitution that were way more serious than the crimes he committed.
“In the course of violating important law, he also provided an important service. OK. Because we did need to know how far this has gone.”
That’s sounds like a step in the right direction at least.
h/t Guardian
