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Comment by BLKNSLVR | Hacker News Reader

> He just faced arrest if he returned

You seem to continue to minimise the seriousness of the situation.

Oh it was very serious what he did. But it was odd he went to Hong Kong then to Russia on his was to Ecuador. It wasn’t well thought out

It wasn't odd at all the list of places he could flee to was very limited because of his job.

It's more odd that some people don't give him the same benefit of the doubt they would a whistleblower from Russia or China.

He didn’t have to flee at all

What a weird argument. Sure, he didn't "have" to, but I don't blame him for not wanting to spend years (decades? life?) in prison for doing something he believed was morally right.

What about leaking secrets of the United States has anything to do with morals? He might as well been a foreign adversary

when the secret being leaked is that the united states is spying on its own citizens and violating the 4th amendment.

i find it weird how many Russians, Chinese and Americans are weirdly protective of their own government's oppressive behaviours in the name of patriotism.

Again you are missing the point. Nothing was proven in violation of the 4th amendment. Ninth Circuit didn’t even latch on that argument nor express it. Courts agreed that the metadata collection program went beyond what was approved by the FISA courts. But he leaked a whole host of foreign spying programs that had nothing to do with Americans.

Just as some Chinese people want Ai Weiwei to rot in prison, some Russians wanted Navalny to rot in prison and some Americans wanted or still want Snowden and Assange to rot in prison.

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