Editing National Security Agency (section)

=== Church Committee hearings ===
{{Further|Church Committee|Watergate scandal}}

In the aftermath of the [[Watergate scandal]], a congressional hearing in 1975 led by Senator [[Frank Church]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/preemption/telecoms.html|title=Pre-Emption – The Nsa And The Telecoms – Spying On The Home Front – FRONTLINE – PBS|work=pbs.org|access-date=2024-06-07|archive-date=2007-05-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518115305/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/preemption/telecoms.html|url-status=live}}</ref> revealed that the NSA, in collaboration with Britain's SIGINT intelligence agency, [[Government Communications Headquarters]] (GCHQ), had routinely intercepted the international communications of prominent anti-Vietnam war leaders such as [[Jane Fonda]] and Dr. [[Benjamin Spock]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Martin |title=No Holiday: 80 Places You Don't Want to Visit |location=New York |publisher=Disinformation Company Ltd |isbn=978-1-932857-29-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pj1_-1a79kkC&q=9781932857290 |access-date=March 14, 2014|year=2006 }}</ref> The NSA tracked these individuals in a secret filing system that was destroyed in 1974.<ref>{{cite web|title=National Security Agency Tracking of U.S. Citizens – "Questionable Practices" from 1960s & 1970s|editor=William Burr|publisher=[[National Security Archive]]|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cybervault-intelligence-nuclear-vault/2017-09-25/national-security-agency-tracking-us|access-date=August 2, 2018|date=September 25, 2017|archive-date=January 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200103044145/https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cybervault-intelligence-nuclear-vault/2017-09-25/national-security-agency-tracking-us|url-status=live}}</ref> Following the resignation of President [[Richard Nixon]], there were several investigations into suspected misuse of FBI, CIA and NSA facilities.<ref name=Moyers-2007 /> Senator [[Frank Church]] uncovered previously unknown activity,<ref name=Moyers-2007 /> such as a CIA plot (ordered by the administration of President [[John F. Kennedy]]) to assassinate [[Fidel Castro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94755_IV.pdf|title=Book IV, Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Foreign and Military Intelligence (94th Congress, Senate report 94-755)|date=April 23, 1976|publisher=United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|access-date=June 28, 2013|page=67 (72)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922044847/http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94755_IV.pdf|archive-date=September 22, 2013}}</ref> The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted U.S. citizens.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94755_II.pdf|title=Book II, Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans (94th Congress, Senate report 94-755)|date=April 26, 1976|publisher=United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence|access-date=June 28, 2013|page=124 (108)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521200703/https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94755_II.pdf|archive-date=May 21, 2013}}</ref> After the Church Committee hearings, the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] of 1978 was passed. This was designed to limit the practice of [[mass surveillance in the United States]].<ref name=Moyers-2007>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10262007/profile2.html|title=The Church Committee and FISA|date=October 26, 2007|author=Bill Moyers Journal|publisher=Public Affairs Television|access-date=June 28, 2013|archive-date=June 16, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616003831/http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10262007/profile2.html|url-status=live}}</ref>