[mikeyouse]

Whistleblowers do indeed need protection. Unfortunately for Snowden, current whistleblower laws only protect him if he leaked to his agencies IG;

    Disclosure of information that is required by law or Executive Order
    to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or the conduct
    of foreign affairs is unprotected, unless made to the agency’s Inspector
    General, to “another employee designated by the head of the agency to
    receive such disclosures” or to the Office of the Special Counsel.

Obviously these laws need to be improved, but selective enforcement leaves a ton of room for politics to infiltrate the whistleblowing. It was only a few years ago that Bush's special council at the OSC was arrested for doing precisely that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Counsel#Scott...