Award for most controversial comment in the thread. I agree that Snowden's story isn't black and white. When most people think of Snowden's name they think about his disclosure of methods used by the US government to spy on its own citizens. The problem is that he disclosed other classified documents related to counter terrorism and other types of intelligence activities not only related to US agents, but activities of our allies.

Before Snowden's disclosure, the idea that the US government had complete access to everything was the stuff of fairy tales, only believed by a small group of internet nerds deemed "overly paranoid conspiracy theorists". Now it's pretty much accepted as fact.

Whether he can be called a traitor is certainly controversial, but whether he can truly be free by a simple pardon by a future US president is highly unlikely.