government players (president and advisers) are self-serving and cynical, but on the other, Ryan, another government employee and political appointee, is the only guy with a conscience in the whole story. Our credulity is meant to be stretched, as the hero is a gun-less CIA wonk who willingly runs into life-threatening situations. When Ryan figures out that presidential aides Ritter (Henry Czerny) and Cutter (Harris Yulin) are running the op, he sets out to expose the wrongdoing and personally save the abandoned American combatants captured by the drug lords (Joaquim de Almeida and Miguel Sandoval).Д¬lear and Present Danger is a generic shoot-'em-up that is politically all over the place and a good 20 minutes too long.

Unaware of the plan, Ryan assures Congress that increased funding in the drug war won't be used to put American troops in Colombia, but that's exactly what happens to the funds. The move is designed to slow the drug trade and to create optics that the president's other policies are stemming the flow of drugs into the United States. As the investigation continues, the president orders his top aides to organize a secret paramilitary assault in Colombia on the drug lord, without congressional permission or knowledge. He learns the friend was laundering drug money for the Colombian cartel but took too much off the top, a swindle that led to his demise. In CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, deputy CIA director Jack Ryan ( Harrison Ford) is asked to investigate who murdered a close friend of the president (Donald Moffat).

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