Letters: Assuring that the U.S. won’t torture Snowden

Re “U.S. says it won’t torture Snowden,” July 27

From the time I was a boy in the early 1950s, America was the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Now, despite the fact that the “Russians didn’t really seek this assurance,” our government must promise an ex-communist country, our old adversary, that we won’t torture or kill Edward J. Snowden, a U.S. citizen.

How the great have fallen.

W. James Osborne

Sherman Oaks

Our government was thinking wishfully by believing it could keep secret the fact that it was accessing the records of phone calls made by millions of people.

Too many people would have known about the program, including non-military types outside the government, that someone was bound to start asking questions, an insider would reveal classified details in the course of an ordinary personal conversation or something else.

If Snowden hadn’t leaked information about National Security Agency surveillance, someone else would have. I think this fact should influence how the government treats him should he return to the U.S.

Greg Dahlen

Glendale

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