Answer:
The excuse was religion
Explanation:
All of them had the same excuse, expand religion and God´s name, but the trueyh is that all these and other countries wanted to find GOLD, SILVER SPICES and people to work for them.
This can easily be answered by looking up their names or "the Watergate scandal" on Google. If you didn't have access to Google, however, you should know that the Watergate scandal involved former President Nixon spying on his political opponents at the Watergate hotel. Although this is not infallible logic, if you had to make an 'educated guess', Nixon was the president at the time. The president lives in Washington D.C, the US capital. This should lead you to believe that the Washington Post might have uncovered this scandal. Indeed those two reporters worked for the Washington Post.
