Gestapo not a joke

To the editor:

David Letterman ridicules the German people (Norm Clarke column, Friday Review-Journal) by joking that “Germany is mad at the United States for NSA eavesdropping. This, ladies and gentlemen, from the country that gave us the Gestapo.” I would ask Mr. Letterman: Who on this Earth is best equipped to recognize Gestapo tactics than the people who are tormented daily by that history?

President Barack Obama went to Germany last week to give a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The speech was poorly attended by the Germans and has been panned as lackluster at best. Also during the trip to Europe, Mr. Obama assured the German and French people that nobody was listening to their phone calls or reading their emails. That’s the same load that he landed on the American people a few weeks ago.

Maybe the government isn’t listening, but it knows who you are calling every day. So maybe this isn’t so reassuring to people who heard about, and whose grandparents lived through, the Gestapo era.

We have CIA and FBI drones in the air killing and conducting surveillance. We have the National Security Agency tracking and listening to phone calls and reading the emails of American citizens. We have the IRS attacking and tracking the political affiliations, donations and even the content of the prayers of American citizens. We have the Department of Homeland Security viewing returning veterans as possible terrorist threats to American citizens.

President Obama deserves high praise; he has fulfilled his promise to American citizens.