ly and immorally as they do unless such behavior was condoned at higher levels. It is not enough that higher officials --- as in this case and in the cases of Watergate and Iran-Contra --- claim ignorance of the specific crimes committed. Even if they were ignorant of such crimes, their policy-making and practices establish a mode of government which allows and even encourages such criminal behavior.
As Kwitny writes, "The need, claimed by the past eight presidents, to pursue a perpetual and largely secret global war by fair means or foul against what is said to be a relentlessly expanding Soviet empire has justified gross violations of American law against the interests of American citizens for forty years. What is happening new in 1987 is that a window has suddenly been opened on this shadow world before the spooks who inhabit it could
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