Snowden admitted he sought out his position at Booz Allen Hamilton (an NSA contractor) with only one goal in mind: to gather and then disseminate classified documents about NSA surveillance programs.

Snowden ended up enlisting in the US military because he though at first that the Iraq War was noble. He then did the same for the CIA and the NSA…because he thought those institutions were noble.

This seems to be flatly untrue.

According to an interview Snowden gave to the South China Morning Post on June 12th, Snowden admitted he sought out his position at Booz Allen Hamilton (an NSA contractor) with only one goal in mind: to gather and then disseminate classified documents about NSA surveillance programs.
http://cifwatch.com/2013/07/01/glenn-greenwald-speaking-at-marxist-meeting-misrepresents-snowdens-goals/