By Donald Jeffries
Among the most intriguing promises being made by House Republicans is that they will investigate the obvious abuses by the intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies in recent years. Inspired by the Freedom Caucus, this has the potential for even more explosive revelations than were seen in the mid-1970s during the Senate Committee chaired by Frank Church of Idaho.
The proposed Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will apparently be chaired by Ohio’s Republican congressman Rep. Jim Jordan, one of the most vocal critics of the intelligence agencies. Jordan was notably banned from serving on the unconstitutional Jan. 6 committee by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Among other things, the committee will investigate the communications between the Biden administration and the Big Tech companies, inspired in large part by the recent Twitter Files releases. The committee will prioritize the politicization of the FBI, and investigate the long, pointless inquiry into Russian “collusion” in the 2016 election.
Jordan hinted at his focus in recent letters to the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook parent company Meta, and others, in which he inquired into “the nature and extent of your companies’ collusion with the Biden administration,” instructing them to preserve any documents relating to “moderation, deletion, suppression, restricting or reduced circulation of content.”
Another member of the committee will be Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), considered by many in the alternative media to be perhaps the best member of Congress. It would be a huge disappointment if a committee featuring those two members alone didn’t produce hearings of great interest to the public.
The original Church Committee (Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was the first real example of Congress looking into the activities of the intelligence agencies. It was the first time the American people heard about the CIA and mafia plots to kill Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Revelations about the CIA’s arsenal of James Bond-like weapons included a supposed “heart attack” gun.
The Church Committee also touched upon the questions surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and helped inspire the formation a year later of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Sen. Frank Church epitomized the kind of Democratic politician that still existed then. Church ran for president unsuccessfully in 1976, winning several primaries before dropping out of the race. He died far too early, at only 59 years of age.
Regarding the National Security Agency, Church said, “That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.”
He continued with the eerily prophetic words, “I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”
The vote to establish the new committee was strictly along partisan lines, with all Republicans voting for it (although Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a RINO congressman from Texas, didn’t bother to show up for the vote), and all Democrats against it. The committee will look into the FBI’s clear bias against conservatives, which includes not only Donald Trump and his administration, but down to even the parents who’ve been targeted by the Justice Department for merely criticizing Critical Race Theory in schools.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told Fox News that the committee was “part of our agreement” with new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and claimed that it would have “at least as much as the Jan. 6 committee” in terms of budget and staffing. The committee, over what is sure to be vehement objections from the Biden Justice Department, is also planning to look into ongoing investigations, including that of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), whose cell phone was confiscated by the FBI, in connection with the laughable Jan. 6 “investigation.” Perry didn’t rule out serving on the committee himself.
The committee will consist of eight Republicans and five Democrats. It has been predictably scoffed at by Democrats. House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar dubbed it “the tin foil hat committee” and expressed concern that it would “shape and add to these conspiracy theories.” Demonstrating the unfortunate drift of the new authoritarian left, Loch Johnson, who was Sen. Church’s top aide on the committee, claimed that the GOP’s proposal was an effort to “obtain impunity for themselves and punish their enemies.” In the wake of Trump’s battles with the CIA and FBI, the Democrats have become staunch defenders of our hopelessly corrupt intelligence agencies.
If there was a need for a Church Committee in 1975, a similar committee now is vitally important and long overdue.
