NEW YORK –- It’s no secret that the mid-20th century was a dirty time for U.S. intelligence agencies. J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was waging personal wars through the government, infiltrating social movements and encouraging civil rights leaders to commit suicide. The CIA was working with the Mafia to assassinate foreign leaders, and had gotten into the business of overthrowing foreign governments, leaving a trail of fractured regimes through Africa and the Middle East.
Oversight? Man, those were the days.
“The whole climate of America was one that was worried about the government,” said Fritz Simmons, a staffer on the legendary, 1970s-era Church Committee, the independent Senate commission that forced American spies to reckon with their excesses.
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But the stakes are high, Simmons said. When the abuses become too great, the public will demand a new investigation.
“It’s not a matter of if,” he said.
