“Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden might be a U.S. fugitive for the rest of his life, but that small detail isn’t stopping him from joining the board of a nonprofit group cofounded by Daniel Ellsberg, the onetime leaker of the Vietnam War-era Pentagon Papers,” Defense One reports.

Said Ellsberg: “He is the quintessential American whistle-blower, and a personal hero of mine. Leaks are the lifeblood of the republic and, for the first time, the American public has been given the chance to debate democratically the NSA’s mass surveillance programs.”

The New York Times also quotes Ellsberg: “He is no more of a traitor than I am, and I am not a traitor.”