The Church Committee

In the mid-'70s, the U.S. Senate set up a special committee, the Church Committee, to investigate allegations that federal intelligence agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were abusing their powers in both domestic and foreign affairs. Former Vice-President Walter F. Mondale and former Senator Walter Huddleston were members of the Church Committee. Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr. served as Chief Counsel to the committee. I saw all three of these men speak about the committee's investigation, reforms and present significance in a discussion titled "Who's Watching the Spies?: Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans." The program was held at Memorial Hall on the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, in September 2006.

I will admit that I had never heard of the Church Committee before attending this event. I do not find that the situation occurred surprising. The point was brought up during the talk that FBI and CIA officials thought their actions would always remain secret. This security was dangerous: The intelligence agencies believed they would never have to face any consequences, and this drove them to broaden the scope of their sponsored activities. I would argue that this is human nature, to want to get away with as much as possible without being caught. Wiretapping of supposed Communists became wiretapping of Socialist Party workers became wiretapping of student leftist group members and so on.

I found it very interesting that it was the investigative work of journalists, not of politicians or of agency members themselves, that broke these stories and forced the government to examine the performances of the FBI and CIA. One of the speakers Thursday night remembered a Senator being asked what the agencies had been up to and him responding with: "I don't want to know." The story of the New York Times, Seymour Hersh and the eventual creation of the Church Committee is a testament to the journalist's role as watchdog, but a cautionary tale of what can happen when a system of checks, balances and accountability breaks down in the government as well.

The Church Committee had a delicate line to walk. The members did not want to compromise the power of the FBI or the CIA. They were criticized afterwards for putting the country as risk, for stripping the control away from those who guaranteed the nation's safety. At the same time, the committee had to ask the questions that mattered. Should the U.S. adopt the tactics of its enemies? Should the public know the facts? Are the practices of the intelligence agencies wrong? Do they violate American rights?

What the Church Committee decided upon was of great importance to the United States. As Sen. Huddleston attested, "We saved the CIA." Vice-President Mondale said the committee got the agencies "out of politics and back into proper law enforcement." Their main recommendation to the FBI and CIA was to quit focusing on "subversion," a wishy-washy term that had the agencies invading the privacies of innocent American citizens, and turn their attention toward espionage and terrorism. The committee said that assassination as a foreign policy was terrible; assassination should only be used in times of war. Also, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was born as a result of the Church Committee. FISA made warrants necessary for the government to spy on American citizens using, for example, phone tapping procedures. This piece of information was especially fitting after recent incidents involving the Bush administration.

Walter Mondale summed up the issue nicely saying, "When we obey the law we can do everything we need to do and we can do it with accountability." In one of the better bits of speech from the entire night, Mondale talked about a democracy based on a dialogue of fact, not fear.