Reply #118: True

[Azathoth]

No one is perfect. I am actually quite sympathetic to Drake, but my sympathy is not based on the false notion that he is some kind of anti-Big Brother hero. I see him as an NSA careerist who was legitimately concerned that tax money was being wasted on a boondoggle that he believed would ultimately hinder the NSA's ability to do its job, both because the Trailblazer system apparently didn't work particularly well, and because it didn't even pretend to observe privacy laws, a fact he knew would inevitably lead, sooner or later, to more public scrutiny of the agency.

As you say, anyone who messes with the NSA is in for big trouble, which is why he is being prosecuted. Unfortunately, I think he would have had a better chance of beating the charges and arousing public sympathy for his plight if the whole Manning/Wikileaks thing hadn't happened.