A number of you will recall the “Church Committee.” It was the familiar name given the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities chaired by Sen. Frank Church (D-ID) in 1975 to look into illegal intelligence gathering by the CIA, NSA and FBI.
In the mid-1970s, Sen. Frank Church chaired a committee designed to destroy the U.S. intelligence community. (fenndaily.com)
Fourteen reports on the operational activities of these intelligence agencies included alleged abuses of law they had committed along with recommendations for reform. It was said that they represented the most extensive review of intelligence activities ever made public.
“These last two months have placed American intelligence in danger … and has raised the question whether secret intelligence operations can be conducted by the United States,” testified acting CIA Director William Colby.
Determined to damage our country’s intelligence operations, Church referred to operators as “rogue elephants.” Donald Rumsfeld, who was working for President Gerald Ford, along with diplomat Robert Ellsworth, were credited with preventing the committee from dismantling our intelligence community.
Using the privacy of Americans for cover, Church warned viewers of NBC’s Meet the Press that if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the capacity of our intelligence community could impose total tyranny and any effort to resist the government would be impossible carry out privately.
Many accused the committee of treasonous activity. The Church committee placed our operatives all over the world in danger. In fact, in 1975 Richard Welch, a CIA station chief in Greece was assassinated. The damage done to our intelligence operations took years to restore.
Sen. Diane Feinstein, determined to punish the CIA over its past interrogation techniques, plans to release a report that will place our operators in danger. (stevereports.com)
As I write this post, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) is expected to release her findings on the CIA’s use of what she has determined to be “harsh interrogation tactics.” The 6,000-page report, costing some $40 million to research and write, will again put our intelligence committee in danger. It was written by Democrat staffers.
U.S. personnel overseas have been advised to reassess their safety and security measures in preparation for her release of the report.
The release of the report will render our intelligence community “timid and friendless,” said former CIA Director Michael Hayden. Will operators take a risk when they know they might be hung out to dry? “There are countries out there that have cooperated with us in the war on terror at some political risk who were relying on American discretion,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.
Naively, Feinstein believes that by making this report public she will assure that the techniques of the CIA will never happen again.
As she prepares to leave her Senate Intelligence Committee chairmanship, she is determined to leave a legacy of irresponsibility releasing a political document that will harm our dedicated members of our intelligence community.
