Edward Snowden's 3 Most Important Disclosures Explained By NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake

On Wednesday, the group presented Snowden with an award from the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. "In our visit, we told Edward Snowden that he had begun the debate by disclosing to American citizens what was going on — this massive spying upon American citizens," Rowley says. "We were happy to tell him the debate has begun, but he is very concerned, and this is actually the reason he has sacrificed so much: He wants to see these laws, these secret interpretations of the law, I should say, fixed."

"I feel extraordinary kinship with Edward Snowden. I mean, he has held up the mirror to the government," Drake says. "He wants the Constitution restored. He wants the rule of law restored. He wants the surveillance state disbanded, and that's the reality. It has gone far beyond its mandate to deal with terrorism and other threats to the nation."