I suspect that long after you and I are gone, Snowden and WikiLeaks will be considered more akin to Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers than either of us would prefer.  

But if not Snowden, who?  Today there are too many journalistic lap dogs and too much institutional (and political) secrecy compared to the LBJ/Nixon/Vietnam War era.

I had a relative in the Special Forces who went to both Cambodia and North Vietnam when McNamara and LBJ were lying about those incursions.   He was also associated with the Phoenix CIA assassination program.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Program

Part of my distrust of our current 'intelligence' liars like Mr. Clapper stems from that proven historical background as detailed by that relative.  

All Governments condone lying; it is part of their stock in trade.  Blind acceptance of anything any government says and specifically the US government says, particularly its 'intelligence' agents is, at best, ignorant.