dave wrote:
The USA was established to secure the blessings of Liberty for the People.

You're one for pat answers aren't you? Let somebody else do the
thinking, then spit out their thoughts as if you've been gifted
with profound insight.

Look into how T. Jefferson of the flowing words was drafted into
writing the Declaration and you'll realize there were dozens, even
hundreds, of founding fathers, each with his own ideas as to the
basis of our revolution. Jefferson could just say it more
elegantly. The same applies to the phrasing of the Preamble of
the Constitution.

These are rallying cries, not reality.

As to whether Snowden needs to be prosecuted, there's little doubt
about it. He did us all a service, and the legislation that was the
basis for all this is and was an atrocity. But there were thousands
of ways for this information to leak out, especially by ordinary
citizens working for Google and Verizon and anywhere else a
Patriot Act or FISA order was directed, without a trusted employee
of our espionage agencies becoming a turncoat and delivering
documents he was entrusted with into foreign hands, and doing so
in ways designed to cause as much damage to American foreign policy
as possible.

Let him become a citizen of a tinpot dictatorship. That's where
he should be. And he should shiver in his boots at the thought
of coming anywhere near anyone with the wherewithal to whisk him
away and deliver him to Washington for prosecution.