Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of the report by the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, better known as the Church Committee. On this day in 1976, the first of five books detailing egregious abuses of power by the intelligence community was released by the Church Committee. The report was the first ever comprehensive oversight study of the intelligence community, which had operated largely without any oversight since its founding during World War II. Prior to this study, the Intelligence Committees did not exist in either the Senate or the House, and there was no formal apparatus to check the actions of the Nation's intelligence community. The Church Committee truly was the first of its kind. It grew out of extraordinary circumstances during a period of national soul-searching in the shadow of the Vietnam war and Watergate scandal. In the early 1970s, a series of abuses were revealed in the press, including an expose alleging that the CIA had been spying on antiwar activists around the country. The American people were understandably outraged, and in response, the Senate convened a committee to conduct a comprehensive review of all intelligence activities. The committee--under the chairmanship of Idaho Senator Frank Church, with Texas Senator John Tower as vice chairman--was comprised of 11 Senators and 133 dedicated staff members.…”