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To this day, opinion remains split. But there is absolutely no doubt his actions make him one of the most important civil libertarians in modern history. From his work with the NSA, Snowden had an insider’s knowledge of America’s massive, post-9/11 apparatus for performing warrantless surveillance of virtually every form of digital communication known to humankind. And he spilled it all.

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Snowden, a former NSA contract analyst, leaked a massive volume of NSA documents to the media.

“If Mr. Snowden wants to come back to the United States,” Kerry said, “we’ll have him on a flight today.” Kerry said Snowden should “stand up in the United States and make his case to the American people.”

In his interview with NBC anchor Brian Williams, a portion of which was broadcast Tuesday, Snowden said he was “trained as a spy” and argued that he had a much larger role in U.S. intelligence than the government has acknowledged.

“I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word, in that I lived and worked undercover overseas,” he said.

Kerry said, “A patriot would not run away. … He can come home but he’s a fugitive from justice.”

“Let him come back and make his case,” the secretary added. “If he cares so much about America and he believes in America, he should trust the American system of justice.”

“I think he’s confused,” Kerry added. “I think it’s very sad. But this is a man who has done great damage to his country.”