COMMENT Nearly 30 years after Americans were shocked by revelations of domestic spying by intelligence agencies during the cold war, the US Congress is this week to grapple again with the question of just how far presidents can pry into their lives in the name of national security.
In April 1976, a special committee set up in the wake of Watergate and the Vietnam war protests to investigate allegations that Washington was snooping on Americans released some startling findings. The committee, chaired by Senator Frank Church, discovered that the ultra-secret National Security Agency had long been monitoring telegrams sent abroad.
