Secret

Sen. Rand Paul is recruiting plaintiffs - and seeking donations - for a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency. “Dear Patriot,” the Kentucky Republican wrote Thursday in an e-mail to supporters. “I'm looking for ten million Americans to stand with me and sue the federal government and TAKE BACK our rights. “Can I count on your help? “Without it, I truly fear where our fragile Republic could be headed …” Paul, who is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, told a Fox News interviewer this week that he would be asking Internet providers and telephone companies to join him in a lawsuit against the electronic eavesdropping agency based at Fort Meade.

Though I hate how big and intrusive our government has become, I don't believe Edward Snowden was aware of the bigger picture when he leaked secret information about the National Security Agency's spying ("Source of NSA leaks named," June 10). He forgot that by leaking the information about the NSA's snooping on Americans, he also informed our enemies of its extent as well. One can't tell the American people about something without telling the rest of the world. Because of that, Mr. Snowden's narrow-mindedness should be considered selfish and traitorous.

He didn't use a telephone. He didn't wear a trench coat. He didn't meet anyone in a parking garage, demand anonymity or insist - though some secret signals were involved - upon a code name. All it took for this "leak" was a good horse and a healthy set of vocal cords: "The British are coming! The British are coming!" The unauthorized release of classified government information - and to British eyes, at least, Paul Revere's midnight ride was exactly that - has been an American phenomenon since colonial times.

When a passion for "Game of Thrones" meets up with the kind of inquisitive mind it takes to be a physics grad student at a school like Johns Hopkins University, what you get is the "circumbinary" hypothesis of weird weather seasons in Westeros. Don't mock it unless you have a better explanation as to how "summer can last for decade, winter for a generation" in the fictional world of "Thrones. " I love the kind of intellectual fun these JHU students are having with the the series.

Federal agencies have been whiting-out history for at least the past six years, but it's all hush-hush. The reclassification of 55,000 documents that had long been available to public view didn't involve much big stuff, such as nuclear stockpiles. Most of it was just embarrassing, such as accounts of the many times world developments caught U.S. intelligence experts by surprise or of a goofy Cold War scheme to leaflet Eastern Europe by hot-air balloon. Much had been published and is widely available.

The story of Aldrich H. Ames, the CIA spymaster who pleaded guilty this week to handing over American secrets to the former Soviet KGB, could almost have been written by that acknowledged master of the espionage thriller, John le Carre. But Ames is a far less interesting a character than any the novelist might have imagined.On Thursday Ames admitted being paid more than $2 million over a seven-year period by his Moscow handlers in exchange for identifying Soviet citizens working for the CIA.The government charged that Ames' betrayal resulted in the unmasking and execution of at least a dozen Eastern block agents employed by Washington.

If it's Thursday, then it must be Belgium, and it's doubtful that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will put to rest European concerns over reports that the United States has secretly detained terrorism suspects in Eastern Europe. Ms. Rice departed on her weeklong, four-country trip with her anti-torture remarks at the ready. But her insistence that the U.S. "does not authorize or condone torture of detainees" didn't convince the Dutch or European Union leaders or some of her German hosts with whom she visited Tuesday.

Editor's note: A curious girl bridges the distance between two cultures. On an island not too far away and in a time not so long ago lived a secret tribe called the ciguapas. They made their homes underwater in cool blue caves hung with seashells and seaweed. They came out on land to hunt for food only at night because they were so fearful of humans. Luckily, the ciguapas had a special secret that kept them safe from people. Their feet were on backward! When they walked on land, they left footprints going in the opposite direction.

There was a moment when Gary Vikan was sitting on the 12th floor of the Legg Mason building last fall looking at a dizzying array of charts and numbers. The charts were designed to convey the feelings and attitudes outsiders had of the great city where he lived and worked. But he was dumbstruck. Apparently all the people who lived within 250 miles of Baltimore and had never been here weren't particularly impressed. Those who had, however, were quick to give Baltimore top marks. The divergence of opinions was such that even officials of Longwoods International, the tourism research firm presenting the data, said they had rarely seen such a stark divide.

The National Security Agency, the ultra-secretive spy agency based at Fort George G. Meade, does its best to keep quiet about what goes on there. That is as it should be, as far as cracking codes and collecting data from satellites and microwave dishes worldwide is concerned. But one of NSA's dirtier secrets is being edged into the public eye, where it belongs: a disturbing record of unfair employment practices.NSA has one of the worst minority hiring and promotion records in the federal government, with only 11 percent of its roughly 20,000-member work force composed of minorities compared to 27 percent in the government as a whole.

Your editorial about phone record surveillance was certainly thought-provoking ("Surveillance state," June 7). What is of most concern about our government is the top-secret court that, we now know, actually exists. Where in a democratic republic is there justification for any top-secret court? Joy Shillman, Baltimore

The 29-year-old former CIA employee who admitted over the weekend to leaking documents about the National Security Agency's targeting of phone records, email accounts and Internet use of millions of Americans exemplified the ethical dilemma facing those who consider themselves government whistleblowers: They may firmly believe their fellow citizens have a right to know what the government is doing in their name, but if everyone with access to sensitive...

A report late Wednesday that a top-secret court authorized the National Security Agency to collect the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers should raise serious concerns about the scope of the Obama administration's domestic surveillance program and the threat it poses to citizens' privacy. The fact that the government can secretly order communications firms to turn over massive amounts of potentially sensitive information about customers without their knowledge calls into question the administration's commitment to transparency and the ability of the special court charged with overseeing such requests to protect citizens' rights.

Where's the outrage? The city's Board of Finance, in secret, decided to give $107 million to a wealthy developer for the benefit of an even wealthier corporation ("Harbor Point to get city financing," May 21). Apparently, ordinary citizens can't understand the magic that transforms complicated corporate giveaways into a rising tide of economic prosperity. Unfortunately, that prosperity has yet to reach many Baltimoreans. Access to affordable housing, decent jobs, safe streets, and neighborhood recreation centers has been eroded by the rush of public dollars into the pockets of those who least need this sort of welfare.

Due to my observance of a religious holiday at the time that Alison Knezevich reported on the Open Meetings Compliance Board's ruling on Baltimore County's approval of the so-called "rain tax" ("Board says Baltimore county gave proper notice of meeting," May 17), I was not able to give her my response. I want to commend Ms. Knezevich for calling me the next day after the article was printed. Ms. Knezevich is very conscientious and is a real asset to The Baltimore Sun. Since I couldn't make my comments in the article, I would like to share them with your readers now. The very fact that the Open Meetings Compliance Board met in closed session to issue this ruling reveals the hypocrisy of the board.

Meet Samwell Tarly, the zombie slayer. In a horror-movie-style closing scene in Sunday's 'Thrones' episode, Sam came face-to-face with a seemingly unbeatable foe: A White Walker. With Gilly's baby in danger, Sam wielded his broadsword, which the frozen-zombie easily shattered, casting the overweight, cowardly Night's Watchman to the snow-covered ground.  But then Sam pulled out his obsidian blade, the dragonglass knife he found on the Fist of the First Men. Gathering his courage, Sam charged The Other, stabbing him in the back.

Let me let you in on the secret. Not "a" secret, but "the" secret. The Secret is a little book by Rhonda Byrne that has become a pop culture phenomenon. You might say The Secret came into my life in an odd way, unless you already know about the secret, in which case you will hear the story of how the secret came into my life and believe I willed it there with my positive thoughts - which is exactly how the secret works! I was helping out a neighbor, sitting with her ill child while she was out for the afternoon.

D. Wayne Lukas may seem to the public an unlikely candidate to be one of the most hands-on trainers working in horse racing today. He shows up on television - like Saturday, when his horse Oxbow cruised to a win in the 138th Preakness - looking more like a grandfather enjoying an unbothered retirement in a place where the sun is barely hidden. But the opposite is true. Sunday morning he appeared at his barn a bit later than planned but still less than 12 hours after his horse fended off a listless field in an unexpectedly languorous middle leg of the Triple Crown.

Reading about the rain water tax, I see that government buildings do not have to pay this tax. The government evidently knows how to keep their runoff from causing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Why not tell the rest of us their secret so we can keep our rain water from being contaminated and the Bay will quickly become pristine clean? Believe that and I'll tell you another one. Mary Chesney Schwind Cockeysville