Investigating the President: The Church Committee
In the aftermath of the revelations of the Watergate scandal, one of the most sweeping examples of Congressional oversight of the executive branch came about in the form of the Church Committee. Formally known as the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, it was a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church, a Democratic Senator from Idaho. The Church Committee held hearings in 1975 to investigate abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The committee was part of a series of investigations into intelligence abuses during the mid-1970s. The Committee's investigations led to the establishment of the permanent U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Watergate had brought about an era of mistrust of government and of the office of the Presidency. Disclosures from the Nixon White House tapes and other sources had led to a series of troubling revelations in the press concerning intelligence activities. In January of 1970 Army intelligence officer Christopher Pyle had revealed the U.S. Army's spying on the civilian population. Senator Sam Ervin's Watergate Senate investigations produced more revelations about illegal surveillance by the Nixon White House. On December 22, 1974, The New York Times published a lengthy article by Seymour Hersh detailing operations engaged in by the CIA over the years that had been dubbed the "family jewels". Covert action programs involving assassination attempts against foreign leaders and covert attempts to subvert foreign governments were reported for the first time. The article also discussed efforts by intelligence agencies to collect information on the political activities of US citizens for political purposes unrelated to legitimate national security interests.
In 1975 and 1976, the Church Committee published fourteen reports on various U.S. intelligence agencies' formation, operations, and the alleged abuses of law and of power that they had committed. The Committee also made recommendations for reforms for these agencies. Among the matters investigated were attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, including Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, the Diem brothers of Vietnam, Gen. René Schneider of Chile and CIA Director Allen Dulles's plan, approved by President Dwight Eisenhower, to use the Sicilian Mafia to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba.
The Church Committee also helped to uncover the NSA's "Watch List". This was a list of biographical information, which at its peak held millions of names, thousands of which were US citizens. Some prominent names on this list included Joanne Woodward, Thomas Watson, Walter Mondale, Art Buchwald, Arthur F. Burns, Gregory Peck, Otis G. Pike, Tom Wicker, Whitney Young, Howard Baker, David Dellinger, Ralph Abernathy, and even Senator Church himself.
Among the most shocking revelations to the Committee was the discovery of Operation SHAMROCK, in which the major telecommunications companies shared their traffic with the NSA from 1945 to the early 1970s. The information gathered in this operation fed directly into the Watch List. In 1975, the Committee decided to unilaterally declassify the particulars of this operation, over the objections of President Gerald Ford and those in his administration.
Under recommendations from this committee, President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order 11905 (ultimately replaced in 1981 by President Reagan's Executive Order 12333) to ban U.S. sanctioned assassinations of foreign leaders. The Church Committee's reports compose the most extensive review of intelligence activities ever made available to the public.
Members of the committee of Senators included one former and one future presidential candidate. Frank Church of Idaho was the Chairman. The other members included Senators Philip Hart of Michigan, Walter Mondale of Minnesota, Walter Huddleston of Kentucky, Robert Morgan of North Carolina, Gary Hart of Colorado, John Tower of Texas, Howard Baker of Tennessee, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Charles Mathias of Maryland, and Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Tower was the Vice-Chairman.
The Church Committee was told that the CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigation had intercepted, opened and photographed more than 215,000 pieces of mail since the 1950s under the "mail covers" program. A mail cover is a process by which the government records all information on the outside of an envelope or package, including the name of the sender and the recipient. The Church report found that the CIA was careful about keeping the United States Postal Service from learning that government agents were opening mail.
On May 9, 1975, the Church Committee decided to call acting CIA director William Colby as a witness to testify at the committee hearings. Ford's top advisers proposed that Colby be authorized to brief only rather than testify, and that he would be told to discuss only the general subject, with details of specific covert actions to be avoided except for realistic hypotheticals. But the Church Committee had full authority to call a hearing and required Colby's testimony. Colby testified, "These last two months have placed American intelligence in danger. The almost hysterical excitement surrounding any news story mentioning CIA or referring even to a perfectly legitimate activity of CIA has raised a question whether secret intelligence operations can be conducted by the United States."
On August 17, 1975 Senator Frank Church appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. He said:
"In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air. Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left: such is the capability to monitor everything—telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.
"I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."
Members of the Committee were accused of betraying CIA agents and operations. CIA director George H. W. Bush later said that this had not taken place. But politics being what it is, opponents of committee members made this allegation when committee members later ran for re-election. Senator Jim McClure made this accusation in the 1980 election, and Frank Church was defeated in his bid for re-election, losing to Republican Steve Symms.
More recently, the Committee's work was criticized after the September 11 attacks, for leading to legislation reducing the ability of the CIA to gather intelligence.
Watergate had brought about an era of mistrust of government and of the office of the Presidency. Disclosures from the Nixon White House tapes and other sources had led to a series of troubling revelations in the press concerning intelligence activities. In January of 1970 Army intelligence officer Christopher Pyle had revealed the U.S. Army's spying on the civilian population. Senator Sam Ervin's Watergate Senate investigations produced more revelations about illegal surveillance by the Nixon White House. On December 22, 1974, The New York Times published a lengthy article by Seymour Hersh detailing operations engaged in by the CIA over the years that had been dubbed the "family jewels". Covert action programs involving assassination attempts against foreign leaders and covert attempts to subvert foreign governments were reported for the first time. The article also discussed efforts by intelligence agencies to collect information on the political activities of US citizens for political purposes unrelated to legitimate national security interests.
In 1975 and 1976, the Church Committee published fourteen reports on various U.S. intelligence agencies' formation, operations, and the alleged abuses of law and of power that they had committed. The Committee also made recommendations for reforms for these agencies. Among the matters investigated were attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, including Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, the Diem brothers of Vietnam, Gen. René Schneider of Chile and CIA Director Allen Dulles's plan, approved by President Dwight Eisenhower, to use the Sicilian Mafia to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba.
The Church Committee also helped to uncover the NSA's "Watch List". This was a list of biographical information, which at its peak held millions of names, thousands of which were US citizens. Some prominent names on this list included Joanne Woodward, Thomas Watson, Walter Mondale, Art Buchwald, Arthur F. Burns, Gregory Peck, Otis G. Pike, Tom Wicker, Whitney Young, Howard Baker, David Dellinger, Ralph Abernathy, and even Senator Church himself.
Among the most shocking revelations to the Committee was the discovery of Operation SHAMROCK, in which the major telecommunications companies shared their traffic with the NSA from 1945 to the early 1970s. The information gathered in this operation fed directly into the Watch List. In 1975, the Committee decided to unilaterally declassify the particulars of this operation, over the objections of President Gerald Ford and those in his administration.
Under recommendations from this committee, President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order 11905 (ultimately replaced in 1981 by President Reagan's Executive Order 12333) to ban U.S. sanctioned assassinations of foreign leaders. The Church Committee's reports compose the most extensive review of intelligence activities ever made available to the public.
Members of the committee of Senators included one former and one future presidential candidate. Frank Church of Idaho was the Chairman. The other members included Senators Philip Hart of Michigan, Walter Mondale of Minnesota, Walter Huddleston of Kentucky, Robert Morgan of North Carolina, Gary Hart of Colorado, John Tower of Texas, Howard Baker of Tennessee, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Charles Mathias of Maryland, and Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Tower was the Vice-Chairman.
The Church Committee was told that the CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigation had intercepted, opened and photographed more than 215,000 pieces of mail since the 1950s under the "mail covers" program. A mail cover is a process by which the government records all information on the outside of an envelope or package, including the name of the sender and the recipient. The Church report found that the CIA was careful about keeping the United States Postal Service from learning that government agents were opening mail.
On May 9, 1975, the Church Committee decided to call acting CIA director William Colby as a witness to testify at the committee hearings. Ford's top advisers proposed that Colby be authorized to brief only rather than testify, and that he would be told to discuss only the general subject, with details of specific covert actions to be avoided except for realistic hypotheticals. But the Church Committee had full authority to call a hearing and required Colby's testimony. Colby testified, "These last two months have placed American intelligence in danger. The almost hysterical excitement surrounding any news story mentioning CIA or referring even to a perfectly legitimate activity of CIA has raised a question whether secret intelligence operations can be conducted by the United States."
On August 17, 1975 Senator Frank Church appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. He said:
"In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air. Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left: such is the capability to monitor everything—telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.
"I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."
Members of the Committee were accused of betraying CIA agents and operations. CIA director George H. W. Bush later said that this had not taken place. But politics being what it is, opponents of committee members made this allegation when committee members later ran for re-election. Senator Jim McClure made this accusation in the 1980 election, and Frank Church was defeated in his bid for re-election, losing to Republican Steve Symms.
More recently, the Committee's work was criticized after the September 11 attacks, for leading to legislation reducing the ability of the CIA to gather intelligence.