We have been discussing the Spygate scandal, abusive investigations, and the need for accountability for a while. But we also have been very quick to caution Patriots that we should not let the misdeeds done against President Donald Trump keep the intelligence community from doing what has to be done to protect this country.

Therefore, it’s concerning to see the lack of outrage over The Washington Post’s recent exposé on one CIA operation that had, for decades, been providing intelligence. The short version is that the Central Intelligence Agency had covertly purchased — and has since sold — a company specializing in encryption and used its control to gain access to secrets.

Americans now know about it, and so do the enemies the CIA spied on via this program. While it certainly gives us context about the Trump administration’s push against Huawei’s involvement in 5G systems, that context is not enough of a benefit for the cost that the knowledge of this program imposes.

Was this a shady operation? Not as shady as other methods to obtain information over the years. It certainly wasn’t enhanced interrogation in terms of controversy and betrayed Patriots. The CIA pretty much ran an encryption company and used that ownership to gain access to secrets. Only bad guys got “hurt” in this operation.

Do we really want to know how intelligence agents convince people to betray their countries? The sources don’t always give us information out of the goodness of their hearts or their love for Liberty and peace. Sometimes we pay them off with money. Other times we resort to blackmail — like giving a potential source the choice of telling secrets he knows or having some of his dirty secrets exposed. For the extremely hard cases like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, we turned to enhanced interrogation.

American intelligence agencies need to acquire information from people not inclined to yield it. For decades, the CIA’s ownership of an encryption company not only gave us direct access to secrets, it gave our intelligence community a look into the advancement of encryption technology, which is arguably as important as reading the other side’s “mail” for so many years. This was an intelligence bonanza for America, and a legitimate operation, unlike Spygate.

The fact of the matter is that we live in a world with a lot of countries that have no love for us. We also have to deal with the threat of terrorism. We need the intelligence community focused and ready to deal with those threats. Exposing programs makes it harder to protect the country, and The Washington Post should be ashamed of having done it.

(Edited.)