Edward Joseph "Ed" Snowden is an American computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency, starting in June 2013. A former system administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency and a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, he later worked for the private intelligence contractor Dell inside an NSA outpost in Japan. In March 2013, he joined the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton inside the NSA center in Hawaii. In June 2013, he came to international attention after disclosing to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor for Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden's leaked documents revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many of them run by the NSA and the Five Eyes with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments. A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously called a hero, a whistleblower, a dissident, a patriot, and a traitor. His disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy. Two court rulings since the initial leaks have split on the constitutionality of the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata.

 U.S. v. Jones 

For people who are more concerned with U.S. civil liberties, though, that second category of leaks -- those having to do with domestic spying -- is going to look awfully significant and deeply concerning. The dubious legal and ethical nature of these programs, not to mention their total secrecy, would seem to justify releasing them -- and casts Snowden in a favorable light. The issue of civil liberties has a huge constituency, for the very good reason that it affects everybody in the country. Some people are more passionate about it than others, but the implications touch us all.