I found this very interesting. These "burglars" uncovered FBI activities that were clearly illegal and resulted in changes to US Laws and increased oversight. However I don't believe anyone within the FBI were ever prosecuted for these obvious crimes
Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows - NYTimes.com:
Snowden's situation is being compared to these burglars I'm not sure that the Snowden situation is quite the same. However I do believe he has revealed situations where the NSA may have pushed beyond their legal limits on surveillance. I firmly believe that the people were all well-intentioned and thought they were doing the right thing for their country. However I believe that there are some people within the NSA who probably knew they were breaking the law, and were violating the intent of our US Constitution, but did not protest or speak out about it.
