ABSTRACT
In 1975, the Church Committee carried out its sweeping inquiry into charges that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had violated its charter by spying on citizens within the United States. This year is remembered by historians as the most extensive probe into the CIA since its founding in 1947. Many intelligence professionals inside the Agency recall the investigation as a period of great trauma – the ‘Year of the Intelligence Wars’ between the CIA and the Congress. 1 At the helm of U.S. intelligence at the time was William Egan Colby, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). In that capacity, he was the titular leader of the entire intelligence community and directly in charge of the CIA, where the Office of th DCI was located at the time (and until 2005) on the seventh floor of the Agency’ headquarters building.
