The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities was established on the 27th of January 1975 “to conduct an investigation and study of governmental operations with respect to intelligence activities and of the extent, if any, to which illegal, improper, or unethical activities were engaged in by any agency of the Federal Government.” This came after a series of allegations of improper activities. This was the first Congressional investigation into the activities of the government’s intelligence community since 1945. The chairman was Senator Frank Church of Idaho.

Amongst the results of the work of the committee were:

• Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (PDF document) – restricted intelligence gathering by the government
• Executive Order 11905 – amongst other things, prohibited the assassination of foreign leaders
• the establishment of a permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

The following have been digitized from the collections of the Boston Public Library:

Hearings

• Book 1- Foreign and Military Intelligence

• Book 2- Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans

• Book 3- Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans

• Book 4- Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Foreign and Military Intelligence

• Book 5- The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

• Book 6- Supplementary Reports on Intelligence Activities (Congressional Research Service)

• Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: an Interim Report