Case Study - The Church Committee and COINTELPRO

Abstract

The church committee discovered extensive abuses in the domestic intelligence collection and launched several reforms to reshape the procedures of collecting intelligence information. This paper has examined the limits imposed by Church committee on domestic intelligence collection along with thorough justification for the changes made. The paper has used case study method to analyze the Church Committee's approach towards COINTELPRO particularly.

Case Study - The Church Committee and COINTELPRO

Introduction

The church Committee, also known as the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, discovered the illegal practices integrated in Domestic intelligence collection. The commencement of COINTELPRO was the key concern of church committee to assess the unlawful operations of COINTELPRO. The Church Committee investigated intelligence gathering by the C.I.A. and F.B.I. for illegitimacy and misconducts which finally resulted in the major transformation of US domestic intelligence collection.

Purpose of the Church Committee

The main purpose of the Church Committee was to check that whether the intelligence activities pose any threat to the privacy rights of the Americans citizens. The committee was confronted with the challenge of determining that how the basic freedom of the citizens can be sustained in the procedures integrating the Governmental efforts to defend their security. The basic rationale for the Church Committee was to counter the extended sphere of intelligence activities from the real enemies of freedom to a wider group of lawful and loyal citizens.

What was COINTELPRO?

COINTELPRO stands for counter Intelligence Program which was basically a series of programs commenced and executed by the United States Federal Bureau of investigation. It was commenced in 1956 but it faced an official termination in 1971 followed by the public exposure. The COINTELPRO was basically designed against far-reaching political organizations. The COINTELPRO was reaction of FBI when Supreme Court rulings questioned the legitimacy and constitutionality of the investigating committees which were working to prosecute communist parties. COINTELPRO was developed to counterbalance those who could not be prosecuted any more.

How did the Church Committee change domestic intelligence collection?

The consistent efforts of the Church Committee finally made FBI to revise the manual in 1967 requiring field to furnish the necessary details about Klan demonstrations and rallies (Churchill et al, 2001). The field offices' special agent In-charge developed the discretion that apart from the people clearly involved in violence, whoever would be involved in the SAC's judgment would be treated as ...