and after weeks of staying out of the spotlight, edward snowden suddenly re-emerges. british television aired his christmas message as abc's pierre thomas reports. >> reporter: edward snowden, the whistle-blower, has emerged from the shadows for a victory lap. >> hi, and merry christmas. >> reporter: in this holiday message recorded for great britain's channel 4, snowden is resolute -- leaking nsa secrets was the right thing to do. >> because privacy matters. privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be. >> reporter: in fact, snowden was confident enough to tell the "washington post" he's already won. >> the conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us, and the government that regulates it. >> reporter: to critics he's a traitor, but his supporters say the christmas season has brought some good tidings. in recent days a federal judge said the nsa collection program may be unconstitutional.