In a rather rare but hopefully precedent-setting occurrence, President Clinton acknowledged and apologized to the victims of secret Cold War-era radiation experiments Tuesday.

These experiments to which Clinton is referring stemmed from the 900-page report issued by a 14-member advisory board of the U.S. Department of Energy. This report concluded that between 1944 and 1974, the now-defunct Atomic Energy Commission conducted some 4,000 radiation experiments, some of which were of unethical and questionable moral standards.

One of these tests involved injecting 18 civilians with plutonium without their concise knowledge of what the exact nature of the experiment was.

The board cited several cases in which financial compensation would be required in an attempt to right these gross misconducts, and cited a half a dozen other cases that could be “candidates” for compensation if the test subjects were found to have suffered physical harm.

In a nation that espouses freedom, it is disturbing that such testing could ever be conducted on any living beings, let alone citizens of your own nation.

“The United States of America offers a sincere apology to those of our citizens who were subjected to these experiments, to their families and to their communities,” Clinton said.

Clinton’s gesture is a remarkable and brave one, and will hopefully lead to prevent any further governmental abuse in the name of national security.