The Church Committee revealed the “Family Jewels,” a set of reports detailing various untoward activities by the CIA. These reports detailed a series of plans and attempts made by the CIA to assassinate foreign leaders like Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, and Rafael Trujillo. Some of these plots even involved the Mafia.

COINTELPRO, short for Counter-Intelligence Program, was a series of covert projects conducted by the FBI from 1956-1971 with the aim of discrediting, undermining, and infiltrating American political organizations that were deemed subversive by the FBI. They primarily focused on leftist groups like the Communist Party, the Black Panthers, feminist organizations, and the American Indian Movement. In 1964, as part of COINTELPRO, the FBI mailed a letter to Martin Luther King Jr. persuading him to commit suicide.

The Church Committee also unearthed Project SHAMROCK, a program in which the major telecommunications companies shared all their traffic with the NSA, allowing covert and unapproved surveillance on all of the country’s citizens.

Operation CHAOS was a project by the CIA that targeted American citizens from 1967-1974. This program spied on US citizens involved in the antiwar movement, despite the CIA being barred from domestic operation.

Probably the most shocking and outlandish of the revelations of the Church Committee, MK-Ultra was an operation where the CIA performed human experimentation involving drugs and torture on unwilling American citizens, with the goal of developing human mind control. Sounds like science fiction, but it’s horrifyingly real.

Operation Mockingbird was a propaganda campaign by the CIA. It was uncovered that journalists both domestic and foreign were acting as CIA assets, and that dozens of US news outlets were providing cover for CIA activities.

HTLINGUAL was an illegal covert program by the CIA. From the 50s to the 70s, the CIA intercepted, opened, and photographed over 200,000 pieces of mail, including mail from prominent individuals like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Steinbeck. It was supposedly aimed at obtaining foreign intelligence but often targeted domestic antiwar and peace activists.

Information about Operation Gladio was included in the classified part of the Church Committee report. Gladio was an operation conducted by the CIA and NATO in collaboration with European intelligence agencies. It involved the creation of covert paramilitary networks throughout Western Europe after WWII, that could be drawn upon to repel a potential Soviet invasion. Though created with the intention to defend, Gladio became infamous due to its alleged role in manipulating politics, domestic terrorism, and false flag operations.

The IRS was revealed to have cooperated and collaborated with the FBI as part of COINTELPRO. One project was the ‘Ideological Organizations Audit Project’ which targeted, investigated, and intimidated the tax-exempt status of right-wing foundations during the Kennedy Administration. The IRS also provided the FBI with free access to tax returns.

Alongside all the clandestine operations revealed in the Church Committee that shocked the public, one thing stood out most of all. The intelligence agencies of the United States had little to no oversight, and were able to bend or break the law as they saw fit, even to violate the rights and safety of citizens.