To the Editor:

In “Don’t Muzzle Former C.I.A. Officers,” by Cindy Otis, Ned Price and John Sipher (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, Nov. 13), former Central Intelligence Agency officers write that they believe that they have a duty to speak out “when our leadership is not doing enough to keep America safe.”

As 9/11 widows, we applaud these C.I.A. officers’ stated desire to speak out driven by their “love of country” and desire to “protect the ideals” upon which the United States was founded.

We, too, share particular concerns about the troubling state of our country and the dangerous implications to national security when foreign policy decisions go awry. But our concerns and calls for transparency began more than a decade ago after the Sept. 11 attacks and continue to this day.

If this new propensity for truth-telling by intelligence agencies and officials had similarly begun before 9/11, rather than 16 years later, perhaps our husbands would be alive; the war in Iraq would not have happened; hundreds of thousands would not be dying in Yemen and Syria at the hands of terrorists using American weapons; Ambassador Chris Stevens might still be alive, and countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would not be considered our allies.