The Army, designated as executive agent for providing aid to civilian authorities, requested assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
For example, during the 1960s and 1970s, military counterintelligence special agents established, maintained, and disseminated files on civil rights activists and organizers.
So called "dissidents", actually U.S. persons who were exercising their First Amendment rights, were placed under surveillance and their movements were observed and recorded.
After three and a half years of investigation, these committees determined that what had occurred was a classic example of what we would today call "mission creep."
What had begun as a simple requirement to provide basic intelligence to commanders charged with assisting in the maintenance and restoration of order, had become a monumentally intrusive effort.
The information collected on the persons targeted by Defense intelligence personnel was entered into a national data bank and made available to civilian law enforcement authorities.
In 1976, President Ford issued an Executive Order placing significant controls on the conduct of all intelligence activities.
EO 12036, signed by President Carter in 1978, and the current Executive Order, EO 12333, signed by President Reagan in 1981, continued the requirement for oversight to maintain the proper balance between the acquisition of essential information by the Intelligence Community, and the protection of individuals' constitutional and statutory rights.
This action organized the former ATSD(IO) under the ODCMO (now the OCMO), retitling and affirming that position as the Department of Defense Senior Intelligence Oversight Official.