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House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

House committee created in 1977 to oversee the intelligence community, whose staff were briefed on the CIA's psychic research that year and whose evaluation subcommittee under Charlie Rose pressed the Pentagon to study remote viewing.

Intelligence & Government · HPSCI, House Intelligence Committee
1977 · Washington, D.C.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was "created in 1977" and "is charged with oversight of the United States Intelligence Community," now eighteen elements, and the Military Intelligence Program.1 It and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence grew out of the findings of the Church Committee.2

Psychic Research

After Parade published "Psychic Spying" on August 7, 1977, the committee asked the CIA for a briefing. David Brandwein, director of the Office of Technical Service, gave three staff members "a short oral history of OTS efforts in the field, dating back to 1961" on November 16, 1977, and left them a written outline of the work classified SECRET, the unclassified article on the research at Stanford Research Institute and "a brief article on Mr. Pat Price." He handled most of the office's briefing of Representative Charlie Rose on February 9, 1978.3 On October 25, 1978, Rose, as chairman of the committee's evaluation subcommittee, wrote to Ruth Davis of the Defense Department that "we have a strong obligation also to learn what Soviet research is underway" and that he would "like to see the Department of Defense undertake those efforts deemed necessary and appropriate to investigate remote viewing and other related phenomena."4 On March 28, 1995, the CIA sent its status responses on the Star Gate program to the committee's chairman, Larry Combest, during the 1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA.6

Other Records

In March 1998 CIA Inspector General Fred Hitz testified to the committee on the agency's relationships with Contra supporters involved in drug trafficking.10 On May 11, 2000, the committee released a unanimously adopted report on the allegations of Gary Webb's Dark Alliance series, finding that the evidence did not support the implication "that the CIA was responsible for the crack epidemic in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the United States to further the cause of the Contra war in Central America."9 In 2021 classified versions of the intelligence community's assessment of domestic violent extremism were briefed to the House and Senate intelligence committees.7 Jim Himes, its ranking member in 2026, appeared that year on a leaked membership list of Peter Thiel's Dialog society.8

Relationships 6

Employer of
  • Kash Patel, national security advisor and senior counsel1
Members
Headed by
Subjects
  • People's Temple, 1980, review of allegations of CIA involvement referred by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 3, 198056
  • Wilson-Davis Memo, from 2022, a 15-page document headed EWD NOTES 10/16/02 is posted as item SD001 of the committee's hearing record on congress.gov; Elizondo wrote that Representative Mike Gallagher introduced the memo at the hearing10

Sources

  1. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "History and Jurisdiction." https://intelligence.house.gov/history-jurisdiction/ ↩
  2. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. Final Report, S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, as cited on the Church Committee page. ↩
  3. Brandwein, David S., memorandum for the record, "Briefing for House Permanent Select Committee re OTS Involvement in ESP Research," OTS memo 287-77, November 17, 1977, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020020-8; Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Legislative Counsel, "Briefing of Representative Charles Rose," February 9, 1978, OLC 78-0576, CIA-RDP81M00980R000600250087-4. ↩
  4. Davis, Ruth M., memorandum for Dr. Jack Vorona, "'Remote Viewing' Project," November 20, 1978, with the letter of Charlie Rose, Chairman, Subcommittee on Evaluation, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, October 25, 1978. ↩
  5. "COMBEST, Larry Ed," History, Art and Archives, U.S. House of Representatives. https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/C/COMBEST,-Larry-Ed-(C000653)/ ↩
  6. Executive Director for Intelligence Community Affairs to Larry Combest, Chairman, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, March 28, 1995, CIA-RDP96-00791R000100040002-2. ↩
  7. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security. "Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021." Unclassified summary, March 17, 2021. ↩
  8. Cameron, Dell, and Yulia Almazova. "Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel's Secretive 'Dialog' Society." WIRED, June 16, 2026. ↩
  9. Survey of Activities of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence During the 106th Congress, H. Rept. 106-1054, 2001, "CIA Drug Trafficking Investigation," citing the committee print Report on the Central Intelligence Agency's Alleged Involvement in Crack Cocaine Trafficking in the Los Angeles Area, February 2000. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-106hrpt1054/html/CRPT-106hrpt1054.htm ↩
  10. Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998, epilogue. ↩

Connected to by shared pages

4 shared · Personvia Larry Combest, 1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA, National Reconnaissance Office
Larry Combest
4 shared · Personvia Alexus Grynkewich, Jim Himes, Dialog
Jim Himes
4 shared · Personvia David Brandwein, Ruth Davis, Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
3 shared · Personvia Ruth Davis, Charlie Rose
Ruth Davis
7 shared · Organizationvia KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation, U.S. Government Designations of Accelerationist-Russia Nexus, 1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
3 shared · Eventvia Larry Combest, 1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA
1995 transfer of Star Gate to the CIA
3 shared · Personvia Fred Hitz, Dark Alliance
Fred Hitz
2 shared · Personvia David Brandwein
David Brandwein

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    OrganizationGovernmentCongressIntelligenceOversightRemoteViewing