◆ SpookStack

l e Approved For Release 2008/11/06: CIA-RDP04M01816R000502010009-4 47 bureaucratic momentum of its own. The Agency's highest officials could have had every reason to suppose that, within the government itself, the program was thought fully con- sistent with the government's purposes, responsibilities, and powers. Potential defendants could reasonably have believed that Presidents succeeding President Eisenhower, and other high officials of the government's intelligence establishment during this later period,knew at least in a general way of the fact that mail openings were taking place and, in a general way, acquiesced in the practice. Furthermore; certain senior officials of both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations have stated to the Department that,although they knew neither their nature nor their scope, they personally were aware of the existence of mail openings and were convinced that the Presidents under whom they served must have known a~ well. In light of such evidence, the Department almost certainly would encounter the gravest difficulties in proving guilt beyond a reason- able doubt. The weaknesses of the evidence, combined with the changes in the law during the course of the East Coast Project, make it unlikely that a prosecution could succeed. An unsuccessful prosecution in a case of this nature would be most undesirable. A roved For Release 2008/11/06: CIA-RDP04M01816R000502010009-4