Readers React: When intelligence agencies spy on the Americans they protect

To the editor: Thanks to Glenn Greenwald for his intelligent piece on the attempts by the U.S. intelligence community to blame the Paris attacks on Edward Snowden and the privacy protections for Internet users provided by Silicon Valley. (“Why the CIA is smearing Edward Snowden after the Paris attacks,” Opinion, Nov. 25)

We as American citizens expect our intelligence agencies to spend their time and unlimited resources going after criminals or terrorists suspected of doing harm to our country while staying within the rules of our laws on spying. I always thought the CIA’s mission was to investigate and go after suspected terrorists or other enemies outside the U.S. and the FBI’s was to handle the job domestically.

I doubt if any of our citizens expected our own intelligence agencies to operate as secret government organizations, distorting facts and lying to our Congress about vital information that we, the people, have a right to know — especially when we discover that they are spying on all of us as well.

Steve Binder, Oxnard

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To the editor: Greenwald is correct in stating the CIA was less than accurate in blaming the Paris attacks on a lack of government spying and Silicon Valley’s encryption. Still, I do not understand why people are so paranoid about government spying.

I don’t sell drugs or espouse violence, so government agents can read all my emails, listen to my phone, look at my health records and put a camera in my bedroom. This fear seems to be ego-based; in other words, you are not as important as you think.

I, for one, like my government, trust it and want it looking for bad guys everywhere.

John Gleason, Camarillo

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