> If a government employee leaked the details of the Osama Bin Laden raid and it subsequently failed, would that be for the benefit of the public? What about leaking the plans of the Union Army during the Civil War?
Those things aren't being done to the public. Cripes, man.
Something doesn't have to be done to an individual directly for that action to strongly influence that person's life. The Union victory in the Civil War, to this day, influences the average American's life much more than PRISM. All actions with wide-ranging lasting consequences are "done to the public."
Attacks against civilian infrastructure, like hospitals.
"any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." -- John Donne ( http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Meditation_XVII )
If someone does something in your name and with your money that you would be ashamed to do yourself, how is that not an attack on you? Honest question.
Those things aren't being done to the public. Cripes, man.