Letters: An open debate on secrecy

Re “Snowden in shades of gray,” Opinion, Jan. 8

Doyle McManus divides Edward Snowden as a whistle-blower (good) and a knave (bad). But what this country needs is a policy on secrecy. This will not be achieved by our Supreme Court ruling on two federal court decisions, one declaring the NSA’s acts constitutional, the other the opposite.

The government’s “right” to secrecy should not be bounced around from one administration to the next. Nor should the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “court” be the overseer for what is done in our name, again in secret. We need an agreed-upon ultimate authority that will test the bounds of secrecy.

Only Congress, in a climate of serious and open debate, can set the standard for secrecy. Americans should know what that standard is and have confidence in the policy by which it is enforced.

Denton Porter

Long Beach

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