Findings of the Church Committee - Essay Example

Church committee report The covert actions taken against the American citizen living in America are intriguing. It involved ing thousands of innocents Americans to investigations. This is not based on any violation of the law. It involves tapping into private calls and accessing private information without any form of oversight. It started from the acceptable and then deteriorated to the unacceptable. It started by looking at and decoding encrypted messages from other foreign embassies. That looked reasonable back then.

What followed are accessing and the information about the anti-Vietnam war. This was done with a hope that all the activities of the American spy agencies shall always remain secret. However, this gave the spy agencies the impetus to intrude into the citizens’ privacy. The act has received bipartisan support. The president and congress did not raise objections. A research was conducted on the same issue, 62% of the respondents said the spy agencies should have some form of oversight. 18 % thought otherwise.

The church committee sort to find out two things. Firstly, whether America should adopt its enemy’s tactics and secondly, it was to come up with facts. This is because America has the necessary machinery and technology to deal with its attackers. While we as citizens support the work of the spy agencies like the FBI, I feel that it should be done within the confines of the law. The step taken by these intelligence agencies is too radical. There is a feeling that this intrusion is against the core values of United States of America.

It’s also anti American culture and the tenets of democracy. ReferencesChurch committee (2006, December 26). Covert Actions Against American Citizens Living in America [Video File]. Retrieved from http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zejpx_1Fs5w