If you’re anything like me, you don’t know everything about our government. As such, it’s easy to imagine that there are whole bodies or organizations you don’t even know about.
To be sure, it can be a little scary to think about. But those terrifying thoughts are only made worse when you learn that there are, in fact, agencies that 1) you never knew existed and 2) have the ability to ruin freedom as we know it.
For many of us, those possible terrors came true in recent years when former President Donald Trump and his 2016 campaign were investigated for supposed Russia collusion. It was learned that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had allowed the FBI to conduct surveillance on Trump and his campaign without his knowledge or consent.
As you likely know by now, it is that surveillance that eventually led to the now-debunked claims that Trump had cheated the election to win. And it would seem that to this day, that very same surveillance and investigation haunt Trump, as well as his former national security adviser, retired Army General Michael Flynn.
And while much of that blame can be laid at the feet of corrupt FBI personnel and officials, Flynn notes that they wouldn’t have gotten as far as they did in their wrongs without the help of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which most of us didn’t even know existed.
Additionally, Flynn warns that, just like our fears tell us, this body could quite easily be the beginning of the end of both privacy and freedom in the US if not held in check.
In fact, according to him, this court has become a shadowy “parallel Supreme Court.” And the really scary part is that they do it in “almost total secrecy.”
He notes that in the coming months, thanks to what is expected to be a great many GOP-led investigations, more on this organization and the agencies it’s supposed to deal with will be found out.
And most of it won’t be good.
Flynn then referenced former Democratic Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who did much to push reforms in the intelligence community in the 1970s through his work as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities. He was so adamant about making such changes, in fact, that the committee quickly became known as the Church Committee.
As the Levin Center noted, it was during his tenure in this position that he uncovered massive amounts of illegal and secret government plots to spy on the American people. Naturally, this could not be tolerated, so reforms were agreed upon and put in place.
At the time, Church remarked that should such intelligence activities be allowed to go on unchecked, it likely wouldn’t be long before a “secret police” was formed, putting even the Constitution in “very real danger.” According to Church, such secrets and “hiding evil is the trademark of a totalitarian government.”
As Flynn notes, the days when this is a very real threat are not behind us just because Church made reforms against them. In fact, thanks to ever-changing technology, corrupt government, and intelligence officials, as well as the overall growth of federal bureaucracy since Church’s time, Church’s words are “more on point in 2023” than ever before.
As such, Flynn suggests that another “Church-like” committee be formed to hold intelligence agencies and all those in that industry accountable and to a higher standard. If our privacy and our 4th Amendment are to stay intact, reforms will need to be put in place and agencies be made fully compliant, or else disbanded, according to Flynn.
Next, the retired general calls on you to pray that our elected officials have the courage and integrity to do what is right in this concern. Of course, we could take this a step further and actually write to them, asking that they push for such reforms and protect our privacy.
As Church warned, should we fail, tyranny could forever take root.
