Is Edward Snowden a traitor?

The reason for writing this post is that there is this straw-man argument going around about accusing Snowden as a traitor.

Is Snowden a traitor?

Being a traitor means that he leaked information to the enemy of the United States, but he leaked information to the American Public, so everyone that thinks Snowden is a traitor thinks that the American Public is an enemy of the United States.

That is possibly the worst argument against Snowden being a traitor. It is embarrassingly easy to pick the argument apart.

Snowden is a traitor is he leaked information to the enemy of the United States. He leaked information to the general public, including Al-Qaeda, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, China, Russia, [insert US enemy of choice here], etc. Therefore he is a traitor.

Snowden leaked the information to everyone, including the American Public as well as enemies of the State. The thing is, the information is only a surprise to the American Public - not the enemies of the State. Think about it. If you are a terrorist/spy/whatever, the safest thing to do is to assume that the US government is watching your every move and that your communication is compromised. If the government thinks you are dangerous, they will bend and possibly break the law in order to keep an eye on you. And because of the vague powers given to the NSA by Congress and public knowledge of secret courts with secret interpretations of secret laws - you're going to assume the worst. And what Snowden leaked wasn't the worst case scenario. If the terrorists/spies/etc had half a brain, they would have already assumed that the government was doing doing this, if not worse. The leaked information would certainly be enlightening to enemies of the State, but it won't really help them.

The leaked information was a huge surprise to a large amount of the American Public. Ardent civil rights supporters had been pointing out when Congress passed laws that would allow these types of intrusions, but the American Public didn't care that much. And even now, when information on these programs have come to light, the American Public still doesn't care too much and the people that had predicted this finally have solid proof that they were right. Congress agreed to let the NSA decide whether or not the public's rights mattered more than their inept attempts at 'improving National Security'. Because walking discontents through setting up a terrorist plot and providing them with all the tools they need so they can be arrested for setting up a terrorist plot is actually making people safer. But that's the FBI and not the NSA.

I have now rambled completely off the tracks. Back to Snowden.

No, Snowden is not a traitor. His information did not help enemies of the State. His information simply reminded the public what their elected officials decided would be best for the public.