1975 Senate investigation that exposed decades of illegal intelligence agency activities
The Church Committee was a U.S. Senate select committee chaired by Senator Frank Church of Idaho that investigated abuses by the CIA, NSA, FBI, and IRS from 1975 to 1976. The committee's 14 reports documented systematic illegal activities by intelligence agencies, including assassination plots against foreign leaders, mass surveillance of American citizens, infiltration and disruption of domestic political organizations, and experimentation on unwitting human subjects.
The committee's findings were explosive. The CIA had plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, Rafael Trujillo, and other foreign leaders. The FBI had conducted COINTELPRO operations against civil rights leaders, antiwar groups, and other domestic organizations. The NSA had intercepted the communications of American citizens without warrants. The CIA had conducted MKUltra experiments on unwitting subjects. The IRS had shared taxpayer information with intelligence agencies for political purposes.
The Church Committee led to significant reforms, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Executive Order 12333 banning assassinations, the creation of congressional intelligence oversight committees, and the establishment of the FISA Court. However, subsequent events — from Iran-Contra to the Snowden revelations — demonstrated that the intelligence community systematically circumvented or undermined these reforms. The Church Committee remains the most comprehensive public accounting of intelligence agency abuses in American history.
