In 1975, Frank Church, a Democratic senator from Idaho, told the American people that a government intelligence agency most of them had never heard of -- the National Security Agency -- "had the capability to secretly monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide."Like many Americans, regardless of their political party, I was startled.At the time, Church was the chairman of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities, better known as the Church Committee.Church assured us that "never again will an agency of the government be permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers threats to the established order."But he could not predict the coming of a Congress wholly forgetful of the Church Committee and absorbed in internal wars to gain political party ascendancy, not to mention a two-term president who largely exterminated the separation of powers. However, as I've been reporting, the revelations of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and Democratic.