In common parlance, 'CIA agent' means 'someone who works for the CIA', with a slight connotation of 'on secret things' or 'under cover'. It can even loosely mean someone who helps the CIA - 'agent' being a general word for someone who acts for on behalf of another. (A high-ranking foreign government official who helps the CIA in return for money or favors can and will be described as a 'CIA agent', no matter their lack of paystubs or 'Officer' titles.)
Snowden worked for the CIA in a foreign country under diplomatic cover. Most of the English-speaking world, and especially the readers of this Irish-based publication, understand that to make him a "CIA agent".
There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who work on "classified" projects or systems. They don't think of themselves as "spies".
Learn to listen when you're talking to someone who has more experience and information than you do. It's a reliable survival strategy in a chaotic world.
Where did the word 'spy' come in? You criticized the labeling of Snowden as a "CIA agent". "Spy" is a different word with different meanings, not used by the article you criticized.
Snowden himself has used that word to describe his work.
And your example (someone involved in "covert" activity) fits the colloquial use of the term "spy".
In any case, this isn't an English lesson.
What I'm trying to say here is that Snowden wants the world to believe he was doing much more important work than he was actually doing. I don't think the public discourse is served by misstating his role within the "black" world.
He uncovered some wrongdoing but I don't buy the story that he was just a good American that is trying to right a wrong. He had an agenda.
I don't necessarily disagree with some of your points, but you are asserting your own opinions as fact. Do you have any sources to support this? I personally think there is a distinction and it is important to be known.
Look up 'agent'. Pull up uses of 'CIA agent' in discourse around the world. Both the logical composition of 'CIA' and 'agent', and some of the extant uses, will be of people generically working for (or alleged to be working for) the CIA regardless of their title or nationality or formal employment relationship.
Just the search ["CIA agent" Snowden] will turn up a variety of writers, foreign and domestic, who have described Snowden that way.
Searching for ["CIA agent" Waldheim] shows multiple sources (including the NYTimes) addressing the speculation that Kurt Waldheim, former president of Austria and Secretary-General of the UN, may have at some point been a "CIA agent". (The latest and most official evidence: he wasn't.)
Also check out the passage "Agent or Employee" in the 'Encyclopedia of the CIA':
It pretty strongly confirms what I described: in common usage, 'agent' means anyone working for the CIA, but in some contexts it also applies to foreign nationals helping the CIA. (Apparently, in the CIA itself, 'agent' is specifically reserved for helpful foreign nationals. But internal bureaucratic distinctions can't override the plain meaning of 'agent' and global usage, to mean both that and more.)
I think the reasoning and references I've provided justify that claim pretty strongly, but I guess we'll have to wait for a linguistic poll to be sure!
Snowden worked for the CIA in a foreign country under diplomatic cover. Most of the English-speaking world, and especially the readers of this Irish-based publication, understand that to make him a "CIA agent".