[tzs]

What Snowden did wasn't covered by the whistleblower laws.

First, under the relevant laws for intelligence community whistleblowers the kinds of actions covered by whistleblowing laws are illegal conduct, fraud, waste, or abuse. It is not clear that all of Snowden's disclosures qualify.

Second, the whistleblower laws only cover public disclosure only if that disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law. If the whistleblowing is about something whose disclosure is specifically prohibited, which would include much of the classified material Snowden disclosed, you have to limit your whistleblowing disclosure to people who are authorized for that material. For an NSA contractor like Snowden that would include the NSA's inspector general and members of some congressional committees and maybe some others.

[drekipus]

That wasn't real whistleblowing?