Decision is called courageous, treasonous

Re “Why we exposed the bank secret,” Opinion, June 27

The explanation by Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet on why the newspaper exposed the bank secret is weak at best. You failed to mention that not one person in Congress has said that this program was illegal and that someone should be prosecuted for it. You took it upon yourself to decide that the public should know about it.

When I was in the Army, the need to know determined who would get sensitive information that could affect the outcome of an operation. The Army knew that if everyone knows about an operation, the mission is compromised.

The bank data program is legal; the terrorists clearly want to kill every American they can; you have reconfirmed to them to be careful about transferring their money or they may get caught.

President Bush is right: Your behavior is disgraceful.

DAVID ASCHENBRENER

Thousand Oaks

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I support The Times’ decision to print the banking surveillance article. I am a retired military officer who served his country for 30 years. In all that time, I never questioned my supreme duty to support, defend and bear true allegiance to the Constitution. Though most public officials do not take such an oath, their actions and sense of duty and responsibility should be guided by it. You are right. All too often history proves that demagogues hide behind the mantras of national security and national interests. When public officials fail in their duty and responsibility to our Constitution, then the press must act, and thank God it has the courage to do so. I applaud your decision.

PAUL LABONTE

Tustin

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I sincerely hope that the parties at the New York Times and L.A. Times responsible for printing this information see some hard time in prison. I will be contacting my representative and senators to encourage them to nail your hides to the wall.

DAVE C. ANDREWS

El Granada, Calif.

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I support your decision to run the bank story. I view this decision as courageous and necessary in standing up to the pattern of Big Brother tactics that this administration has increasingly and alarmingly undertaken, eroding the very rights it professes to protect -- all under the banner of “freedom” -- as if Sept. 11 itself bestowed upon our government a mandate to disregard the Constitution and dismantle the Bill of Rights. As our brave soldiers fight, die and are wounded on foreign soil, helping the Iraqi people establish a democracy, that which is happening to our civil liberties here at home is, in a word, disgraceful.

ROSALIND OLIVA

Fountain Valley

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We really don’t care for your lame excuse for running the bank story. The fact is that as a result of it, we feel less secure. You are enough to give many in the public a case of post-traumatic stress disorder. We hope you are tried and convicted of treason and spying for the enemy.

KENNETH AND PATSY ROBERTSON

Emmett, Idaho

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I buy your paper to be informed; I trust you to give me all the information without censoring any of it. We need to know what our government is doing; they work for us, remember? And at this rate, we are quickly running out of the democracy that we are “exporting.” Thank you for a job well done.

SELENE SOLER

West Los Angeles

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Apparently the editors of the L.A. Times view themselves as journalists first and Americans second.

ALAN EIN

Chatsworth

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American soldiers who went to Iraq to fight for our freedoms are in the wrong place. They should have gone to Washington.

PHILLIP FREY

Los Angeles