The Snowden mystery deepens. He used to post often in the Ars Technica forums, where he espoused some very surprising ideas.
In 2009 he proclaimed that leakers of government secrets "should be shot." He applauded the U.S. government for using high tech to spy on its citizens.
He supported John McCain in 2008, and advocated getting rid of Social Security. This was all while he was stationed in Geneva and working for the CIA.
Or rather, Snowden is a human being that is continuing to evolve and learn about the world around him and he's not a person that has been cast in an iron mold from when they were a teenager.
All that the Ars Technica posts reveal is that is who he was then. Who he is now is different. Believe it or not, over time people can change. Maybe he's paid a lot of attention to what Manning did and has thought long and hard about what he could do to find and expose the US government overstepping. Or maybe he saw or experienced something else that had a profound affect on him. Who can say?
All we know is that is then and this is now.
Snowden is not who he appears to be on the surface.
Or rather he's a real human being, not just a drone, that continues to take in what he sees in the world around him, evaluates it for himself and makes his own independent decisions. For some people that only ever vote for one political party, only ever buy one brand of bread, etc, this might be a bit of a shock (that people can change/evolve.)
If only there were more people like him.