Senate establishes Church Committee to investigate intelligence abuses

The U.S. Senate voted 82-4 to establish the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Sen. Frank Church (D-ID). The committee reviewed 110,000 documents, interviewed 800 witnesses, and produced a 2,702-page final report exposing COINTELPRO, NSA Projects SHAMROCK and MINARET, and illegal CIA domestic surveillance. The committee found the FBI had surveilled Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leaders, anti-war activists, and elected officials based on ideology rather than criminal suspicion. Its findings led directly to the creation of FISA in 1978.