[coldtea]

>The guy did grab a bunch of documents and flee the country. He may have been doing the right thing but I cannot find fault in US authorities trying to get him back in the immediate aftermath of the leak. It is not for law enforcement or junior diplomats to decide these matters. Someone running with documents is always to be stopped. Pardoning is a matter for the executive rather than agencies or the diplomatic corps.

What you described is law. He clearly broke the law. It's according to the law that "it is not for law enforcement or junior diplomats to decide these matters".

But what matters to most of us is justice. That is: was what he did the right (as opposed to the legal) thing to do?

If he was, then we can very much find "find fault in US authorities trying to get him back" -- in fact we can find fault in all their previous behavior, that he helped expose.

The same way I'd find fault with any authorities doing something bad, whether it's their "job" or not. In the same way I wouldn't excuse some 1850 judge ordering the hanging of a slave who tried to break free, or the hangman who did it, even if they followed the law.