Church Committee

U.S. Senate Select Committee to study governmental operations with respect to intelligence activities (NIA, CIA, FBI, NSA, etc.) chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church in 1975. It was formed to accomplish two things: (1) to investigate abuses; and (2) to propose legislative remedies to found abuses and other shortcomings of the intelligence community. After Watergate, years in Vietnam, and a 1974 Seymour Hersh NY Times article concerning alleged intelligence abuses by the CIA and other intelligence agencies; American suspicions and distrust were at a high and for good reason. The CIA had been doing far more than  its charter to perform only ‘gathering of intelligence’ and was ‘behaving like a rogue elephant on a rampage.’ Activities include: COINTELPRO illegal spying on American citizens; assassinations (including cancer, car accidents, skiing accidents, suicide, boating accidents, heart attacks (using a heart attack gun), and just plain being shot; coups to overthrow foreign governments; provocateurs among peaceful activists to incite violence; dispersal of propaganda via paid media, CIA front companies. and human experimentation, among other things. Continue Reading…