Church Committee

The U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975. It investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency, FBI and NSA and dragged MKUltra, assassination plots and domestic surveillance into the open, leading to the permanent intelligence-oversight committees. On the site it is the real oversight moment behind the theme of a secret that outranks the elected government. Its disclosure of Operation Shamrock in October 1975 is the example most often borrowed by disclosure argument.

Connections§

MKUltra · Central Intelligence Agency · Operation Shamrock