The Issue: The Associated Press’s campaign against the NYPD’s anti-terrorism surveillance program.

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“Trophy Hunt” sheds some light on what has become nothing but a bashing of the New York Police Department for doing its job (Bob McManus, PostOpinion, Feb. 28).

The NYPD is being criticized by the Associated Press for using the Internet to identify possible terrorist activity.

This is not an invasion of privacy, as claimed, but good police work — using available data to prevent an attack by a homegrown terrorist.

Yet, in the event of a bombing, or even worse, the AP would be the first to blame the NYPD for not utilizing all available information to prevent it.

If anyone’s offended by what the NYPD is viewing on the Internet, simply don’t put it there for all to see.

T. Lienhard

Westfield, NJ

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Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has done what is necessary to keep all of us safe, including Christians, Jews, Muslims and all religious, racial and ethnic groups.

The NYPD’s surveillance is not a violation of civil rights, it’s an attempt to protect our rights. It’s appropriate for the NYPD’s anti-terrorism unit to keep a close eye on Muslim communities, which terrorists may use as a base from which to strike.

We don’t want another 9/11, and the NYPD is working hard to see this doesn’t happen.

Frederick Bedell Jr.

Glen Oaks Village

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If this is about fighting terrorism, the NYPD should also document where white people shop and pray, as they too have committed acts of terror.

If our NYPD can’t solve a majority of crime or murder cases, perhaps we shouldn’t entrust it with protecting us from terrorists. Every time I’ve been the victim of a crime, the NYPD has failed me or refused to even help.

Kelly wants us to forget about the unsolved bombings of the Mexican and British consulates in Midtown and the Military Recruitment Center in Times Square.

Again, it’s the right wing that supports big government, while liberals denounce it.

Nick Enzminger

Brooklyn

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Bob McManus is right about the naíve and ignorant slant that comes from many Columbia University students when they are interviewed about the NYPD’s efforts to combat Islamist terrorism.

The problem of unreasonable interference with legitimate police anti-terrorist strategies goes well beyond students grasping for attention.

A teacher friend of mine was upset because one of her co-workers said that the murder of our soldiers in Afghanistan by Hamid Karzai’s guards was justified because of the accidental burning of the Koran.

That attitude justifies spying on people and groups, and it breeds and fosters virulent anti-American ideology, especially in the Age of Terrorism.

M. Gorman

Whitestone