He wanted things to change. And for countries to suffer.
Not just the US. And it seems that the more harm he can do the US, the better, whether that involves embarrassing the US or embarrassing the US' allies. If the US announced that it was going to suspend all the programs, do you think Snowden would have backed down?
I don't. While there's the threat of some huge quantity of stuff just waiting to be released should anything happen to him, there's also the threat of the relations-damaging "revelations" continuing for quite some time. Drip. Drip. Drip.
A single data-dump like with the Wikileaks Manning dump would have done the same. A single sudden burst of outrage--and everybody knows what there is to know. But he didn't do that. The "drip, drip, drip" part is important. Possibly just to keep his plight alive in the public's eye because he needs someplace to crash without burning. I don't think so.
Moreover, Greenwald was the info source to begin with, and by the time Snowden's name was released to the public he was out of the country. Had he not released his name, he might easily have been able to find a country that would grant him asylum *before* the US had flagged him and warned everybody away. This just might be naivete. But his "credentials," however fluid they may have been, were necessary both for the public to put whatever credence in his leaks that it has plus whatever stroking he needed from the press. Additional leaks probably would have accomplished establishing his bona fides, such as they are.
He wants the attention. He just (a) doesn't want the pain that could accompany the notoriety; and (b) wants the notoriety to continue for as along as possible.
One of the last things I think he wants is to be accepted by some country, put in an out-of-the-way safehouse for 6 months until things cool down and he learns the language, and then be farmed out to some area where he can live out his life in peace. I think he wants to pick a country where he will be famous, welcomed as a kind of hero, and granted the ability to still be a hero out to save the world. Venezuela would do nicely, with the single problem that fairly few in the US, where his perspective is centered, would give a rat's ass if that's where he wound up. He'll either have to adjust his expectations of celebrity downward and settle, or hope for a Big Name country to offer the sucker succor.
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