Since I believe Thomas Drake is a hero for blowing the whistle on incompetence and possible malfeasance at the National Security Agency, I attended his sentencing hearing ("No jail time for ex-NSA official," July 16).
I appreciated the fact that U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett excoriated the government's treatment of Mr. Drake. Unfortunately, the judge did not go far enough.
To prevent future government abuse of whistleblowers, he should have congratulated Mr. Drake for his efforts to expose a shoddy government program. It is shameful that Mr. Drake is financially destitute because he did the right thing, while the former director of the NSA who did the wrong thing got a promotion.
Max Obuszewski, Baltimore