Most Americans say Snowden is Whistleblower, Not Traitor

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Edward Snowden, who has worked at the National Security Agency for the past four years in Hawaii, told The Guardian newspaper about clandestine surveillance programs that the government is conducting with its own citizens as the targets
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Edward Snowden, who has worked at the National Security Agency for the past four years in Hawaii, speaking during an interview with The Guardian newspaper at an undisclosed location in Hong Kong, June 6, 2013.

A new public-opinion poll reveals a majority of Americans believe former Hawaii-based National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, rather than a traitor.

The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found 55 percent of poll participants identified Snowden as a whistleblower, while 34 percent said he was a traitor.

Americans were split on whether the government’s counter-terrorism efforts went too far in restricting civil liberties as part of its war on terrorism.  Forty-five percent of those polled said the government had gone too far; 40 percent said the government had not gone far enough.

The vote was a reversal from a a January 2010 Quinnipiac survey, when nearly two-thirds of voters said the government’s activities did not go far enough to adequately protect the country.

Quinnipiac University Polling Institute assistant director Peter Brown said the “massive swing” shows the public’s “apparent shock at the extent to which the government has gone in trying to prevent future terrorist incidents.”

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4 COMMENTS

  2. Kind of sounds like he thinks that he is entitled to do whatever he wants because he leaked this. If he is a whistleblower, let him come back and face the music. The media circus that will surround him will protect him until they find another story.

  3. Quinnipiac University?? Who did they survey? They survey people in Connecticut (where Univ is located), Florida, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. They havent surveyed middle America.

    Snowden is a traitor and a coward. He has probably done all the damage he can do and I hope he saves the US taxpayers money by staying in Russia (at the airport lockup) or in some third world country where they too will tire of him.

  4. how can this jerk be considered a whistle-blower? a WB is someone in the government workplace who discloses breaches of policy or law by other employees. he was not employed by the government and what NSA was doing was within the bounds of the law. hence he can only be termed a coward and traitor.

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