Maybe I miss it, but seems to me that one of the big elephants in the room is Booz-Allen.

[Cronus Protagonist]

57. I've had the highest level access to companies assets for many years now

Tech guys like me often do. We have full root access to the web server to be able to make it work for the end users, we also have system administrator access to the database in order to troubleshoot any issues with the web site or data manipulation mechanisms, and also commonly have administrator level access to pretty much all the most important servers in the company.

Although I'm not a low level employee, I might as well not exist as far as the CEO knows, or the employees who consume the data and use the systems that I work on. When working in a system admin job, I oil the machinery of corporate storage and delivery systems, change the filters, backflush the radiator, tighten the brakes, fix the clutch and such like, if I may stretch a metaphor. To do things like that, you need the highest access levels. I know it stretches the metaphor really far, but imagine if your mechanic had to get permission on paper to fix the front left brake, and while fixing that, he noticed the rear right brake, being part of the same system, was also weak. Would he get much done if he had to go and get permission slips to look at and work on that too? Of course not, he would just go and look, and he would have access to do that, just like a system administrator would do when working on a complex data storage system.

We system administrator / white hat types tend to have strong ethics. And although Snowden and I are miles apart politically, as tech guys with high level access, I have to think that he's just the kind of person to be an ethical whistleblower even if the people who built the system sold their souls to the Devil, he was not willing to stay on the crew when he found out what was really going on, so he squealed. And he was ethically right to do so.

Snowden broke the cardinal rule of systems administration. He told the public and aired out his company's dirty laundry. In this case, due to the illegality of what he found regarding the operating practices of his company, it may have been the most ethical thing to do - at least I assume that is the case from what I know of the situation, which is the same as what you all know. He knew if he complained about the illegal stuff internally, he would be fired and nothing would be done. So he did what would let him keep his integrity and also be best for the country. He blew the whistle on the crooks that he was working for, and in doing so, pretty much sentenced himself to a life in some kind of prison. That takes guts. It takes ethics, and I commend him for his courage.