The Church Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation into the National Security State

The celebrated Senate exposé of U.S. government spying, assassination plots, and mind control experiments is rehashed in this handy digest. Historian Guariglia (Police and the Empire City) and American studies scholar Hochman (The Listeners) reprint excerpts from the 1976 report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Idaho senator Frank Church. FBI misdeeds uncovered include the Cointelpro project of spying on and disrupting civil rights groups and the anti–Vietnam War movement: the feds infiltrated organizations, sowed violent dissension within them, and deployed warrantless wiretaps and bugs to dig up discrediting dirt. Chapters on the CIA detail the Agency’s involvement in plots to assassinate Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba among others, along with the infamous MKUltra program, which tested the mind-altering effects of LSD on unwitting subjects. Though these revelations are now well known, the authors deftly condense the six-volume report into a readable greatest-hits compilation. The report itself still stands out as an incisive critique of the obfuscatory verbiage of intelligence bureaucracies. (“‘Planning for the Congo would not necessarily rule out ‘consideration’ of any particular kind of activity which might contribute to getting rid of Lumumba,’” reads one summary of an official discussion of his planned murder.) It’s a worthwhile presentation of a seminal takedown of the deep state. (Jan.)