I would hardly say that the NSA employee "sold out our national security." That's an exaggeration, but from my standpoint, it does look like they violated the nondisclosure agreement of their contract. I do know, however, there are programs put in place for reporting illegal activity of the NSA, but not a single one of them involve talking to reporters or the media.

As someone who worked with this kind of security clearance material back in the days of Kennedy and Johnson, I want this guy drawn and quartered. As Tim said above, there are all kinds of ways to handle material that is classified but should not be. There is a whole chain of command there with followup from the various congressional committees. At no point is the media included as a place to take your complaints.

I would imagine that if it were that egregious, it could even go as high as the president. It still does not include the media. That this a@@hole turned this information over to the press is reason enough to nail him to the wall. The reporters should also be nailed IMNSHO. As I recall the laws involved, if you are not cleared for the information you are obligated to stop whoever is giving you the information. There was nothing in the law that said it did not apply to the media. If you do not stop the person giving you the information then you are as guilty as the person handing out the classified information. Again there is nothing there that precludes the media being subject to the laws.