Recollections from the Church Committee's Investigation of NSA
Abstract
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 Ervins 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 Committees sights thanks to a number of sensational press accounts, there had been no press exposes about NSA. Our supervisor, in fact, seemed to take particular delight in pitting Pete and me against this mysterious Goliath. They call it No Such Agency, he said. Lets see what you boys can find out about it. It was the first time I had heard the agency referred to this way, and it was not long before I understood why.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA524178
Entities
People
- L. B. Snider
Organizations
- Central Intelligence Agency