Edward Snowden to cash in on his treachery/whistleblowing

Sitting in his apartment in Moscow, Edward Snowden, former contractor for the National Security Agency and ex-employee of the CIA, will be wondering how much money he is going to make from the publication of his account of his decision to steal a treasure-trove of top secrets from his one-time employers and hand them over to a bunch of western newspapers, including The Guardian. I have never found it easy to embrace Snowden as a brave whistleblower who saved the world or at least the concept of privacy in the world by revealing that the NSA was overstepping its powers by eavesdropping on everyone's phones/texts/emails in the United States. In hindsight it was probably time for the NSA, benefiting from huge advances in technology, to curb their enthusiasm for hunting down terrorists and basically bad people by scooping up everyone's communications in the hope of finding where and who they are. But did this justify Snowden walking out of his office with a thumb drive overflowing with thousands of secrets which would undermine/damage/destroy US national security interests? According to the chief executive of Macmillan Publishers which is eagerly planning to publish Snowden's story in September, the former intelligence contractor did the American people and the world a great service. He sacrificed his career in order to save us all, the CEO said. Well I guess he wants to put Snowden in the best possible light because that is the whole point of Macmillan's publishing venture. Will it make Snowden and Macmillan a fortune? Probably not but some newspaper will no doubt buy the serial rights and so the dollars will flow to Snowden's bank in Moscow. I assume he has a bank account in Moscow? I am afraid that I read the press release from Macmillan including the CEO's quotes with a degree of yuk yuk! I know all the arguments. He saw what was going on and decided he and he alone needed to tell the world. Just the same argument that Bradley Manning/Chelsea Manning used to leak thousands and thousands of classified diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. Manning was sent to jail. Should Snowden be treated differently? I still feel uncomfortable about Snowden being put on a pedestal and described as a hero. No one said Manning was a hero/heroine. But I'm sure that when Snowden's book comes out - I won't mention its title - it and he will be heralded as courageous and brave and inspiring. But not by me.