Iran-Contra Scandal

-While the CIA is certainly the target of many of the author's accusations of abuse of power, he makes it clear that the Agency does not operate in a vacuum. No arm of the government could engage in such widespread corruption and immorality and abuse of power without much of the rest of the government knowing about it and either condoning or ignoring it.

Another point made in Kwitny's story is one which could be made in Iran-Contra as well --- few of the perpetrators of these outrageous crimes against the law and against the people and principles of the United States ever are punished or otherwise brought to justice.

Nevertheless, the accusation of wrongdoing leveled at individuals is not the most important part of the book. As Kwitny declares, " . . . Actors come and go. It is the roles that stay, and that we need to be concerned with" (p. 12). In other words, corruption has become such an established element of the government that

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Does it cover an agent who lines his pockets in side deals while working in the name of national security? What are the boundaries of law and morality when it comes to foreigners who are regarded as our 'friends,' and hurting those who are regarded as our 'enemies'?" (p. 25). If there is a problem with Kwitny's book, it is not one of his own making. He is writing of a world of secrecy, of deception, of subterfuge, or lies, of cover identities, and it is not surprising to find --- as in Watergate and Iran-Contra and the investigations into the role of intelligence agencies in the assassination of President Kennedy --- a number of dead-ends at which the investigator finds nothing but frustration and stonewalls. Such investigations as the one at hand in Kwitny's book make it necessary for the author to "connect the dots" in a sense, to make educated guesses. For example, Kwitny, in the chapter "Corporate Veils," writes that "Recollections of when Nugan returned to Australia vary---from late 1967, about when Hand arrived, to early 1969. And just how did Nugan --- the playboy heir to a modest food-processing fortune with strange beginnings, even stranger criminal associations, and built in part on U.S. military contracts--happe
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Some common words found in the essay are:
United Kwitny, Hand Bank, Earl Yates, Watergate Iran-Contra, Southeast Asia, Central Intelligence, Recollections Nugan, White House, President Kennedy, Soviet Union, military intelligence, abuse power, criminal behavior, educated guesses, --- watergate iran-contra, central intelligence, soviet union, united government, watergate iran-contra, nugan ---, --- watergate,
Approximate Word count = 1545
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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