09/23/2026
What does it take to hold national security agencies accountable? The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation into the National Security State, edited by Matthew Guariglia and Brian Hochman, revisits the landmark 1975-1976 Senate investigation, named for its committee chair Senator Frank Church (D-ID) that exposed abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies, including CIA covert operations and assassination plots abroad. The committee's findings helped reshape congressional oversight of these agencies and remain relevant amid contemporary questions about executive power, international law, and U.S.-Latin American relations.
What was the political context that enabled the U.S. Senate Church Committee investigation? What was the mandate, and how was the investigation carried out, including the key sources and the risks involved? What were the main findings and what were the findings specific to U.S. policy in Latin America? What institutional or policy changes did the report help bring about, and what is its contemporary relevance?
Matthew Guariglia is a historian and senior policy analyst at the Electonic Frontier Foundation whose work examines surveillance, policing, and the history of state power. He is the author of Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York and co-editor of The Church Committee Report (2026).
Brian Hochman is a professor of American Studies and English at Georgetown University. His scholarship focuses on surveillance, communications, and U.S. cultural history, and he is the author of The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States and co-editor of The Church Committee Report (2026).
Co-sponsored by the University of Arizona Center for Latin American Studies, the Department of History, and the School of Government and Public Policy.
