Give Snowden a Pardon!

I do not think traitors should get pardons. I don't think all whistle-blowers should regardless, but needs to be taken on a case by case basis. 
Mike Pompeo thinks Snowden should be imprisoned or worse, executed. I worry about anyone having that view on this case and getting a top position in the intelligence community. Think of what that message says about his upcoming tenure. It's scary. During the Obama administration itself we've seen too much crack down on things like this. Trump will see it be worse, pointed out by taking on Pompeo.
When you're doing wrong, take your blows and clean up your act. We were and still are on a questionable, if not bad path regarding surveillance of Americans. 
We needed to hear what Snowden had to say. 
End of story. 
Pompeo's claims of Snowden being a liar are such that you tend to look at he who makes the claim and realize... he's the one lying. On that count, I've listened to Snowden and what he says has made sense. It fits what I know, not just about him but about intel, security, America, how things work and how they should work. He has said things I've tried to say or get people to understand for many years. I consider if I had been in his position, would I be the one now sitting in Russia? I've been lucky enough to have some interactions with people in the security, intelligence, and government who are privy to these things. I've heard things that would make your hair curl, going back to 2000. And what I hear from Snowden makes perfect sense. 
We owe him. We do not owe our government on this one, whom we pay to do what, do surveillance on US? No. We need protection to be sure, we need to be safe on our home turf. But! This situation isn't fixable with police and intelligence actions. This is a longer term situation that requires a global effort, a generational effort. We may die on our home lands, I may die at the hands of an immigrant terrorist. But we cannot bend to the winds of religious and international idiocy, religious lunacy. We will have to take the time to fix this long term. but we cannot fix it today, or tomorrow. We smiled while people suffered around the world and it's come back to bite us. Yes, many of us were ignorant. But we are not now, or we have no reason to be now. Farmers in Afghanistan need jobs, or they grow opium and produce heroin. They need help. And we give them war. People in Syria need help but we give them international politics. We have gotten fat and lazy in America while some of the world suffers. And they are mad. Read your world history, not history taught in schools but what really happened, what America really helped to happen, all because of money, oil, greed, stability, perceived evils, and real evils. Sometimes you do what is right and you suffer later for it. That's life. I raised my own kids to know that. 
Yes I do believe that on the way out, Obama, who we owe a great debt to, regardless of his being human, making mistake like the rest of us, regardless of the constant deluge of the disingenuous, biased, sometimes racist and so often ignorant claims by the right to the contrary. Considering how let down we were on several issues and I understand many of those not having been resolved (Cannabis legalization being one), Obama should pardon Snowden. 
If we could see Pres. Nixon pardoned to protect the office of President, to protect America, then we should certainly see Snowden pardoned.
Especially with Trump being president elect, soon to be president, already our intellectual Grand Guignol level of world wide embarrassment. 
Most especially because of that.