STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Trump administration is talking openly about trying to remove Venezuela's president from power, getting rid in some way of President Nicolas Maduro. The conversation comes on the 50th anniversary this month of a Senate Committee report on the CIA's role in the assassination of foreign leaders, including several in Latin America. Turns out to be kind of relevant. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre has been digging into the history. Greg, good morning.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. It's called the Church Committee. If you cover intelligence agencies, national security for very long, you hear about the Church Committee. What was it?
MYRE: Yeah, Steve, it's a name referring to Idaho Senator Frank Church, a Democrat who headed the bipartisan committee. It was established in 1975 after a series of reports, mostly in The New York Times, about the CIA's role in attempted or actual assassinations in the 1960s and '70s under both Democratic and Republican presidents. I spoke with Peter Kornbluh. He's with the National Security Archive, a private group that researches national security documents.
PETER KORNBLUH: From 1947, when the CIA was officially created, all the way through to 1975, when the Church Committee reports began to be released, the CIA basically had no real oversight. The American public was unaware what was being done in its name, but clearly without its knowledge.
INSKEEP: Until this report, which said what?
MYRE: The committee gained access to the CIA documents and examined five cases where the spy agency was involved directly or indirectly in assassination plots. Three of the five were against left-wing leaders in Latin America, in Cuba, in Chile and the Dominican Republic. Here's AP video footage from Senator Church, speaking when the report was released.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FRANK CHURCH: We regard the assassination plots as aberrations. The United States must not adopt the tactics of the enemy. Each time the means we use are wrong, our inner strength, the strength which makes us free, is lessened.
MYRE: So several additional reports followed, and Senator Church went on to call the CIA a rogue elephant that was out of control, and it led to reforms still in place today.
INSKEEP: Ah. Well, if they're still in place today, how do they relate to this talk of getting rid of Maduro?
MYRE: Yeah, really in several ways. First, back then, President Gerald Ford responded to the Church Committee with an executive order that barred the assassination of foreign leaders. Now, Steve, a large gray area has developed after the al-Qaida attacks on 9/11. U.S. presidents maintain they can target individuals that are part of an active conflict with the U.S. Most prominent example, of course, would be Osama bin Laden. But an executive order against assassinations still stands. The Church Committee also led to the creation of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, which oversee the intel agencies. You know, however, members of Congress are complaining today that they're getting very little information on U.S. airstrikes against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean or possible military action against Venezuela.
INSKEEP: Yeah. And we've been following the movement of an aircraft carrier and other ships into that region. I want to ask about little - another aspect of this history, though, Greg, because hasn't the United States, even before the CIA, had a long history of intervening against foreign governments, particularly in Latin America?
MYRE: Yeah. Absolutely true. Happened very often in the last century. Hasn't happened recently. But as a possible analogy, some point to 1989, when the U.S. invaded Panama to arrest that country's president, Manuel Noriega. Noriega took refuge at the Vatican embassy, and while he was there, the U.S. military waited him out and set up loudspeakers and blasted music. Memorably, it included "Give It Up" by KC & The Sunshine Band, "No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. We don't know what the Trump administration is planning in Venezuela, but the president has acknowledged authorizing unspecified CIA activity.
INSKEEP: Greg, thanks so much.
MYRE: Thank you.
INSKEEP: NPR's Greg Myre.
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