Recollections from the Church Committee's Investigation of NSA

At this time in which we're hearing arguments as to the legality of the NSAs' spying, I'll take you all back to a time when this came up before. First, the webpage that this post links to in the title, tells the story of one of the members of the Church Committee staff, investigating the NSA back in 1975.

Second, the webpage linked further down, is to the actual Senate hearings. The hearings themselves are extensive and time consuming to read, but if you're interested in current events, it's at least worth skimming through.

"In January 1975, I was offered a position as counsel on the staff of the Church Committee. I was 30, and Senator Sam Ervin, for whom I had worked since 1971, had retired and returned to North Carolina. While I had participated in Senator Ervin's inquiry into the domestic activities of Army intelligence elements during the Vietnam era, the foreign intelligence apparatus of the United States, which I now confronted, was, quite literally, foreign to me, as it was to many of those joining the Church Committee staff."

"To make matters worse, I was given the task (along with a staff colleague, Peter Fenn of trying to crack what was perceived to be the most secretive of US intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency (NSA). Unlike the CIA and FBI, which were the agencies principally in the Committee's sights--thanks to a number of sensational press accounts--there had been no press exposés about NSA."

"What ensued was something of an odyssey that lasted over the better part of a year. It began with a series of fruitless, sometimes comical, efforts to penetrate NSA's defenses."

SELECT COMMITTEE TO STUDY
GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS WITH
RESPECT TO INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES

THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY AND FOURTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS

OCTOBER 29, 1975

The CHAIRMAN. "The hearing will please come to order."

"This morning, the committee begins public hearings on the National Security Agency or, as it is more commonly known, the NSA. Actually, the Agency name is unknown to most Americans, either by its acronym or its full name. In contrast to the CIA, one has to search far and wide to find someone who has ever heard of the NSA. This is peculiar, because the National Security Agency is an immense installation. In its task of collecting intelligence by intercepting foreign communications, the NSA employs thousands of people and operates with an enormous budget. Its expansive computer facilities comprise some of the most complex and sophisticated electronic machinery in the world."