NSA vets praise Snowden as a whistleblower, but fear he may take things too far

Edward Snowden, the federal contractor who exposed the NSA’s controversial PRISM surveillance program, has delivered a bit of vindication for three former top NSA officials who were once whistleblowers themselves. In a round-table interview with USA Today, Thomas Drake, William Binney, and J. Kirk Wiebe said that Snowden’s leaks have been a public service — but the trio also criticized Snowden for telling the press that the US launches cyber attacks against China. “I don’t think he had access to those programs, but somebody talked to him about it,” Binney, an ex-NSA technical director, said in the interview. “He’s transitioning from whistle blower to a traitor.”