Church Committee
Congressional committeeWikipedia
72
MENTIONS
39
EPISODES
38
PODCASTS
Search complete. 72 mentions across 39 episodes found for "Church Committee".
Sep 30, 2026
Julian DoreyGUEST
There should be no room in America for something like that to happen, but the reality is, and it's been talked about on my show by guests who have been on here over the years, and they were right over the target with this.
Julian DoreyGUEST
They're like, "Look at the Church Committee." Frank Church in his next election had whatever it was.
Julian DoreyGUEST
I don't remember the millions of dollars back then in the '70s, but he had all this dark money brought in through polls that were from the intelligence agencies.
Clint RussellHOST
Yep.
Danny BessnerHOST
So let's talk about the mid-70s.
Danny BessnerHOST
It's in 76, I believe, where Ford basically outlaws assassination coming in the wake of the church committee.
Danny BessnerHOST
So what's happening at that moment and how does the history of assassination proceed from that time?
Simon BallGUEST
Okay, so as you know, there are a number of investigations.
Simon BallGUEST
The Church Committee is the Senate investigation.
Simon BallGUEST
There's a House of Representatives investigation.
Simon BallGUEST
There is also a president in the Rockefeller Commission.
speaker_3HOST
Yeah, FISA is the foundational baseline here.
speaker_3HOST
So this was enacted in the wake of the Church Committee in the 1970s.
speaker_3HOST
Right,
speaker_7ADVERTISER
which is a huge
Rand PaulGUEST
This is how bad it is.
Rand PaulGUEST
I've been trying to read the Church Committee's classified annex from 1976.
Rand PaulGUEST
The Church Committee? Yeah.
Rand PaulGUEST
Yeah.
Rand PaulGUEST
It's like 50 years old.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
And I'll just give you a quick list.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
So the church committee set up by Senator Frank Church They delivered their findings, or maybe it all happened in the same year, but it happened in 1975, the year I was born, so I'll never forget that.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
They investigated the CIA, FBI, NSA, and IRS, so you can imagine there was a little bit of material there.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
So I'm going to tell you, just very briefly, some of the findings of the Church Committee, and this will probably be familiar to your audience, but anyway.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
MKUltra, okay.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
drugging and torture of unwitting US citizens for mind control experiments, COINTELPRO, surveillance and infiltration of American political and civil rights organizations, and arguably most important of all three, Operation Mockingbird, a systematic propaganda campaign with domestic and foreign terrorists operating as CIA assets and dozens of US news organizations providing cover for CIA activity.
25 MINS LATER
James CorbettHOST
attack.
James CorbettHOST
And then put the pills on the floor and he drives into the river.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
And I'll just give you a quick list.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
So the Church Committee, set up by Senator Frank Church, they delivered their findings, or maybe it all happened in the same year, but it happened in 1975, the year I was born, so I'll never forget that.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
They investigated the CIA, FBI, NSA, and IRS.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
So you can imagine there was a little bit of material there.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
So I'm going to tell you, just very briefly, some of the findings of the Church Committee.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
And this will probably be familiar to your audience, but anyway.
Antony RotunnoGUEST
MKUltra, okay.
25 MINS LATER
James CorbettHOST
attack.
Martin FitzgeraldGUEST
So anyway, this debate rages on and on and on.
Martin FitzgeraldGUEST
And then something happens, something interesting happens in 1975, where the US government convenes the Church Committee, which was a committee... was designed to look at abuses in the intelligence services in the 60s.
Martin FitzgeraldGUEST
And a guy called William Colby testified, and he testified that there'd been an 18-year, multi-million dollar program based around poisonous darts and projectiles.
Martin FitzgeraldGUEST
And then a weapons designer called Charles Sweeney came forward and said, in 1963, it would have been possible to fire poisonous dart from an umbrella.
Rob ClarkHOST
Pena had also observed Oswald, Debruys, David Smith, and Wendell Roach, those two guys are from the Immigration Service, the INS, leave the restaurant together and head for the Customs House building.
Rob ClarkHOST
In 1976, staff members of the Church committee knew that Smith was involved in CIA operations in New Orleans in the early '60s.
Rob ClarkHOST
In his testimony, Debruys acknowledged his acquaintance with Border Patrol Agent Smith.
Rob ClarkHOST
And Roach also admitted his acquaintance with Warren Debruys.
Rob ClarkHOST
...
Rob ClarkHOST
I don't know who is.
Rob ClarkHOST
Uh, swore under oath before the Church committee.
Rob ClarkHOST
George Joannides who? We got Theofanis Popalis, baby.
Jimmy AkinHOST
Now, when, when Sidney Gottlieb retired, um, the director of the CIA had all-- or one of the high-ups at the CIA had all of the MKUltra files destroyed, so that what MKUltra did could never come out.
Jimmy AkinHOST
But, um, a congressional committee in the nineteen seventies known as the Church Committee started to look into the matter, and the CIA was like, "Hey, we don't have any files.
Jimmy AkinHOST
They were unfortunately all destroyed to save shelf space or something." And, uh, it turned out that they had missed a batch of files that were primarily financial records of different sub-projects within, within MKUltra.
Jimmy AkinHOST
And so those came to light, and those got, those got looked at.
Jimmy AkinHOST
They experimented with it, but it doesn't seem to really do that.
Jimmy AkinHOST
Whether the CIA has, um, abilities, whether they were able to develop abilities to control someone's mind or their behavior is something that's disputed.
Jimmy AkinHOST
According to the CIA and what they said with the Church Committee was, "Well, we experimented in this area, you know, but, um, it didn't work, and that's why we killed MKUltra." Others have said, no, they did get some methods that would allow them to significantly modify a person's mental processing and behavior.
Jimmy AkinHOST
They just kept it underground.
LionelHOST
Senate records.
LionelHOST
Senate documented MK Alter since a church committee.
LionelHOST
LSD, hypnotism, electroshock, menticide, covert drug testing, and research into combining drugs with hypnotic trance and post-hypnotic stuff.
LionelHOST
But... we're talking about a new world if you're thinking about the guy with the gold pocket watch and the the labs and the you know no no no no no no what if tyler robinson was never again programmed to kill doesn't know what this is about has no idea What if the programming again was so far more sophisticated? Why? Because we needed him there for what, kids? To be the patsy.
6 MINS LATER
LionelHOST
That's what I want you to think.
LionelHOST
Because the frightening thing about MKUltra, the frightening thing, is not that somebody invented it, you know, or anything like that, is that it's not that somebody invented it on the internet, whatever.
LionelHOST
It's the fact that, how do I say this? The funny thing is that MKUltra even existed, that the United States government as events by Frank Church and the Church Committee, documented CIA projects involving behavioral modifications.
LionelHOST
And by the way, do me a favor, lose CIA.
29 more episodes mention Church Committee.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.