Unsavory and vicious tactics have been employed -- including anonymous attempts
to break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions, and
provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths.
Intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of
presidents and other high officials. While the agencies often committed excesses in
response to pressure from high officials in the Executive branch and Congress, they also
occasionally initiated improper activities and then concealed them from officials whom
they had a duty to inform.
Governmental officials -- including those whose principal duty is to enforce
the law --have violated or ignored the law over long periods of time and have advocated
and defended their right to break the law.
