vault backup: 2026-09-21 18:07:25

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Church Committee.md

@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Operation CHAOS (CIA): The CIA's Operation CHAOS (MHCHAOS), directed by [[Richar
 
 COINTELPRO (FBI): The FBI's COINTELPRO programs were documented as having used infiltration, psychological warfare, fabricated communications, wrongful prosecution referrals, and coordination with local law enforcement in ways the committee found constituted a systematic campaign against legal political activity. The committee found that the FBI had opened more than 500,000 domestic intelligence files since 1960 and that many targeted individuals had never engaged in any illegal activity.[^1]
 
-Assassination plots: The committee documented CIA programs to assassinate foreign leaders, including [[Fidel Castro]], [[Patrice Lumumba]], Rafael Trujillo, Ngo Dinh Diem, and Rene Schneider of Chile. The Interim Report, "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders" (published November 1975), established the documented record of these operations.[^1]
+Assassination plots: The committee documented CIA programs to assassinate foreign leaders, including [[Fidel Castro]], [[Patrice Lumumba]], Rafael Trujillo, Ngo Dinh Diem, and [[Rene Schneider]] of Chile. The Interim Report, "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders" (published November 1975), established the documented record of these operations.[^1]
 
 Illegal mail opening: The CIA's HTLINGUAL program, which opened first-class mail between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1973, was documented as an illegal domestic operation conducted without required judicial authorization. The FBI's parallel mail opening programs were also documented.[^1]
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ NSA programs: The committee documented NSA watch lists targeting American citize
 
 ### MKULTRA and Behavioral Research
 
-The committee's 1975 inquiry into the CIA's behavioral-control research was hampered because the main [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] records had been destroyed in 1973 on the orders of [[Richard Helms]] and [[Sidney Gottlieb]]; the committee found no evidence that the executive branch or Congress had been informed of the programs across a quarter-century. Gottlieb testified in secret about the assassination programs and was identified in the final report under the false name "Victor Scheider," and professed not to remember most of the behavioral-control details. The committee's report on the unauthorized storage of toxic agents disclosed [[MKNAOMI]] and the [[Fort Detrick]] operations, and recorded that "the drug program was part of a much larger CIA program to study possible means for controlling human behavior," extending to "radiation, electric-shock, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and harassment substances." The committee found that the only time in twenty-five years that CIA officials sought White House approval for any of this work was a 1955 contribution of $375,000 toward a research building at Georgetown University Hospital, personally approved by [[Allen Dulles]]. A reference to the program buried in the Rockefeller Commission report triggered the Freedom of Information request that ultimately surfaced the surviving boxes of MKULTRA financial records.[^2]
+The committee's 1975 inquiry into the CIA's behavioral-control research was hampered because the main [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] records had been destroyed in 1973 on the orders of [[Richard Helms]] and [[Sidney Gottlieb]]; the committee found no evidence that the executive branch or Congress had been informed of the programs across a quarter-century. Gottlieb testified in secret about the assassination programs and was identified in the final report under the false name "Victor Scheider," and professed not to remember most of the behavioral-control details. The committee's report on the unauthorized storage of toxic agents disclosed [[MKNAOMI]] and the [[Fort Detrick]] operations, and recorded that "the drug program was part of a much larger CIA program to study possible means for controlling human behavior," extending to "radiation, electric-shock, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and harassment substances." The committee found that the only time in twenty-five years that CIA officials sought [[White House]] approval for any of this work was a 1955 contribution of $375,000 toward a research building at Georgetown University Hospital, personally approved by [[Allen Dulles]]. A reference to the program buried in the Rockefeller Commission report triggered the Freedom of Information request that ultimately surfaced the surviving boxes of MKULTRA financial records.[^2]
 
 ### Primary Source Access
 
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ The Church Committee final report and accompanying books are available through t
 
 ### Legislative Consequences
 
-The committee's findings led to the establishment of permanent Senate and House intelligence oversight committees (the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) and contributed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, which created a judicial framework for domestic national security surveillance. The executive orders prohibiting political assassination issued by Presidents Ford and Carter also emerged from the committee's findings.[^1]
+The committee's findings led to the establishment of permanent Senate and House intelligence oversight committees (the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] and the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]]) and contributed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, which created a judicial framework for domestic national security surveillance. The executive orders prohibiting political assassination issued by Presidents Ford and Carter also emerged from the committee's findings.[^1]
 
 ### Footnotes