◆ SpookStack

"' ., • • r. Approved For Release 2008/11/06 : CIA-RDP04M01816R000502010009-4 55 the available evidence indicates that the then Attorneys General probably were informed generally of the CIA's acti- vities and, in the latter instance, of their possible scope. Again, no steps were taken to determine what the programs encompassed or to question in any way their legality. During the period in which the mail openings took place, there was no clear control to ensure that arguably valuable intelligence techniques would be employed only with careful attention to their~legality and their effects on individual rights. The absence of defined control was perhaps in part the result of the necessary secrecy, even within the government, that attends intelligence operations, and of the desire for "plausible deniability" by the President .. What- ever its cause, the failure of officials at the highest levels who were generally aware of these activities (though they did not participate in them) to clarify the law and establish insti- tutional controls, and their apparent contentment to leave the individuals operating in this field to proceed according to their best estimates of legal constraints in a vague and yet vitally important area -- all this would render a prosecution I by the government hypocritical. What really stands indicted as a result of the inform~tion which the Department's investigation I l has disclosed is the operation of the government as an inst±tution:; i specifically, its failure to provide adequate guidance to its A roved For Release 2008/11/06: CIA-RDP04M01816R000502010009-4