What Makes Edward Snowden Different from all other NSA Whistleblowers?

Thom Hartmann reports what others also have reported: Edward Snowden's release of classified documents indicating that the NSA has been spying on Americans has removed a number of hurdles to several pending lawsuits against the NSA. There have been other NSA whistleblowers in the past: William Binney, Thomas Drake, Russ Tice, and others. But none of them went so far as to make public actual classified documents supporting their accusations that the NSA has been spying on us. By refraining to do so, they stayed within the boundaries of the law, and though the U.S. government tried to bring legal action against them, and made their lives very difficult, in the end they were not able to successfully prosecute them. Snowden has crossed the Rubicon, so to speak. He has released classified documentation to the press. Officially, this makes him a lawbreaker and subject to prosecution. Yet without his actions, it's very unlikely that any legal action against our government spying on us could be upheld in court. That may change now. And for that, Snowden deserves our gratitude and moral support.