But on 3 September 1976, Bud Nossiter, of the Washington Post, interviewed Cruise O’Brien as to how he envisaged the new legislation being implemented. O’Brien responded by pulling open a drawer in his desk filled with letters to the editor of the Irish Press. Many of these either disagreed with some aspect of government policy, were about the Portlaoise or Six County situation, or expressed a Nationalist viewpoint. Nossiter, coming from the paper that uncovered Watergate, was understandably appalled. Did O’Brien intend to take action against people whose crime was to write letters to the
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