Oversight Hearing:
City on the Hill or Prison on the Bay? Part III: Guantanamo – the Role of the FBI

House Foreign Affairs - June 4, 2008

Witness:
The Honorable Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice

Podcast - 37MB mp3

audio stream for dial up:



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Oversight Hearing:
Energy Market Manipulation and Federal Enforcement regimes

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation - June 3, 2008

Witnesses:
Mr. Terrence A. Duffy, Executive Chairman, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, Inc.
Mr. George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management
Mr. Michael Greenburger, Professor, University of Maryland School of Law
Mr. Mark N. Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America
Ms. Lee Ann Watson, Deputy Director, Division of Investigation, Office of Enforcement, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Mr. Gerry Ramm, President, Inland Oil Company on behalf of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America

Podcast - 47MB mp3

audio stream for dial up:



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Hearing on: From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules, Part I

House Judiciary Committee - May 6, 2008

Witnesses:
Philippe Sands, QC, Professor of Law, University College London, Barrister, Matrix Chambers
Marjorie Cohn, Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, President, National Lawyers Guild
David B. Rivkin, Jr., Partner, Baker & Hostetler, LLP
David J. Luban, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Podcast - 48.7MB mp3


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DOJ budget for fiscal year 2009

Senate Committee on Appropriations - April 10, 2008

Witness: Michael Mukasey, United States Attorney General

This morning's Senate Appropriations committee hearing with Michael Mukasey, USAG, is now available on the subcommittee's website via a realplayer webstream.

TMP has posted a partial transcript of the exchange between Senator Feinstein and AG Mukasey on the 4th Amendment. However, this was not the only important matter covered during the hearing. The terrorism watch list, the pre-9/11 AQ phone call from Afghanistan that AG Mukasey described in the Q&A period of his March 27th talk and other matters of some (I hope) interest were also discussed.

In order to make the testimony more widely available, here is an mp3 audio rip from the committee's website.

Podcast - 21.3MB mp3

4/11/08 - update 1: a rough transcript of about 3 min, beginning about 37 min from the start of the hearing:
4/11/08 - update 2: see Glenn Greenwald for analysis.
4/11/08 - update 3: youtube of segment

Senator Leahy: You gave a speech at the commonwealth club. You made reference to pre-911 phone call from Afghanistan to the United States. Here's what you said, this was an open meeting, "That's a call we didn't know about. We knew there'd been a call from someplace that we know to be a safe house in Afghanistan. We knew it came to the United States, we didn't know precisely where it went," and you indicated that failure to intercept this was responsible for the deaths of more than 3000 people on September 11th. You also suggested we didn't intercept it because the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act prevented it. Now I've gone back through all the 911 commission report. Nobody else seems to know about this call you made or that...

Mukasey: I didn't make the call.

Leahy: hm?

Mukasey: I didn't make the call. I mentioned...

Leahy: No, you mentioned the call. But nobody else seems to know about this. So, can you tell me what the circumstances were on that and why FISA would have stopped it? Because nobody else seems to know about this call from Afghanistan that you talked about. We do know about the Department of Justice failing to even listen to their own FBI agents who told them about these hijackers who learned to fly, agent Bill Kurtz, among others, and was told, "We've got this under control." We do know the Department of Justice wanted to cut the budget on counter terrorism on September 10th. We do know that a lot of those signals were missed, but nobody seems to know about this phone call you talked about.

Mukasey: The phone call I referenced, which by the way was not in the speech, it was in the question and answer session following the speech, relates to an incoming call that is referred to in a letter dated February 22nd of this year from the DNI and me to chairman Reyes of the House Intelligence Committee with copies to the principle members and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The underlying reference is contained in a joint intelligence report of the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee. I'm happy to provide you with a copy of that reference.

Leahy: Would you please?

Mukasey: The one thing I got wrong was the geography. It did not come from Afghanistan. I got the country wrong, but other than that it was spot on, and I will be happy to provide you with the page. And the point to be made there was not that we could not have monitored it under FISA, but rather that no FISA application should have been necessary to monitor a foreign target in a foreign country. I was speaking generally to the desirability of getting a bill passed, as you know we've been having a lot of trouble with that, but I'd be happy to get you the reference. You're right it's not in the 9/11...

Leahy: Then we don't need FISA to monitor a foreign source.

Mukasey: We shouldn't need it.

Leahy: We didn’t need it then. And we don't today.

fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Oversight Hearing on Torture and the Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Detainees: The Effectiveness and Consequences of “Enhanced” Interrogation

House Committee on the Judiciary - November 08, 2007

Witnesses:
Malcolm W. Nance, Anti-terrorism/Counter-terrorism Intelligence Specialist, Former SERE Instructor
Steven Kleinman, Colonel, USAFR, Intelligence & National Security Specialist, Senior Intelligence Officer/Military Interrogator
Amrit Singh, Staff Attorney at the ACLU

Podcast, 38.6MB mp3



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To examine Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments, focusing on ways to protect Americans' security and privacy while preserving the rule of law and government accountability

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - Oct 31, 2007

Witnesses:

Panel I:
Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, U.S. DoJ

Panel II:
Edward Black, President and CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Washington, DC
Patrick F. Philbin, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis, Washington, DC
Morton H. Halperin, Director of U.S. Advocacy, Open Society Institute, Washington, DC

Podcast, 47.1MB mp3


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Oversight Hearing on the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. DoJ

House Committee on the Judiciary - October 30, 2007

Witnesses:
John K. Tanner, Chief, Voting Right Section, U.S. DoJ, Civil Rights Division
Toby Moore, Former Geographer/Social Science analyst, CRT Voting Section
Laughlin McDonald, Director, ACLU Voting Rights Project, ACLU Southern Regional Office
Robert N. Driscoll, Alston and Bird
Julie Fernandes, Senior Policy Analyst & Special Counsel, Leadership Conference for Civil Rights


part 1 - Podcast, 28.4MB mp3
part 2 - Podcast, 18.5MB mp3


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Markup Hearing - FISA RESTORE ACT, H.R.3773

House Committee on the Judiciary - October 10, 2007


part 1 - Podcast, 30.0MB mp3
part 2 - Podcast, 8.1MB mp3


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Private Security Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - Oct 2, 2007

Witnesses:
Panel 1:
Erik Prince, Chairman, the Prince Group, LLC and Blackwater USA
Panel 2:
Ambassador David M. Satterfield, Special Adviser, Coordinator for Iraq
Ambassador Richard J. Griffin, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Director of the Office of Foreign Missions
William H. Moser, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Logistics Management


panel 1 - Podcast, 60.1MB mp3
panel 2 - Podcast, 21.2MB mp3



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Preserving the Rule of Law in the Fight Against Terrorism

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - Oct 2, 2007

Witness:
Jack Landman Goldsmith, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts


Podcast, 39.1MB mp3



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To examine proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2008 for the President's supplemental request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senate Appropriations Committee - Sept 26, 2007

Hearing chaired by Robert C. Byrd, U.S. Senator, D-WV

Witnesses:
Peter Pace, oint Chiefs of Staff
Robert M. Gates, Secretary, Department of Defense
John D. Negroponte, Deputy Secretary, Department of State

Podcast, 63.5MB mp3



fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Business meeting to consider nominations for FEC

Senate Committee on Rules & Administration - Sept 26, 2007

Business meeting to consider the nominations of Robert Charles Tapella, of Virginia, to be Public Printer, Steven T. Walther, of Nevada, Hans von Spakovsky, of Georgia, David M. Mason, of Virginia, and Robert D. Lenhard, of Maryland, all to be a Members of the Federal Election Commission.

Podcast,14.3MB mp3



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Strengthening FISA: Does the Protect America Act Protect Americans' Civil Liberties and Enhance Security?

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - Sept 25, 2007

Witnesses:
Panel 1:
J. Michael McConnell , Director of National Intelligence

Panel 2:
James A. Baker, Formerly Counsel for Intelligence Policy, DOJ
James X. Dempsey , Policy Director, Center for Democracy and Technology
Suzanne E. Spaulding, Principal, Bingham Consulting Group
Bryan Cunningham, Principal, Morgan & Cunningham LLC

panel 1 - Podcast, 48.1MB mp3
panel 2 - Podcast, 13.8MB mp3



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The Lack of Accountability in Private Security and Reconstruction Contracting in Iraq

Democratic Policy Committee - September 21, 2007

Witnesses: Panel 1
Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel, Mother of Former Blackwater USA Employee
Jeremy Scahill, Investigative Reporter
Nick Bicanic, Documentary Filmmaker
Donald Vance, Former Private Security Contractor

Witnesses: Panel 2
Bunnatine Greenhouse, Former Top-Ranking Civilian Contracting Officer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Robert Isakson, Former Coalition Provisional Authority Contractor
Stephen Kohn, Executive Director, National Whistleblower Center
Alan Grayson, Attorney, Grayson & Kubli

Podcast, 47.6MB mp3



fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Hearing to examine the evolution of an economic crisis, focusing on the subprime lending disaster and the threat to the broader economy.

Joint Economic Committee - September 19, 2007

press release

Witnesses:
Peter R. Orszag, Director, Congressional Budget Office
Robert J. Shiller, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics, Yale University
Martin Eakes, Chief Executive Officer, Center for Responsible Lending
Alex J. Pollock, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Podcast, 41.3MB mp3 (note: charts & figures in artwork field)


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Hearing on Warrantless Surveillance and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: The Role of Checks and Balances in Protecting Americans’ Privacy Rights (Part II)

House Committee on the Judiciary - September 18, 2007

Witnesses:
Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence
Kenneth Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security US DOJ

part 1 - Podcast, 50.5MB mp3
part 2 - Podcast, 17.4MB mp3


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Hearing on Warrantless Surveillance and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: The Role of Checks and Balances in Protecting Americans’ Privacy Rights

House Committee on the Judiciary - September 5, 2007

Witnesses:
The Honorable Bob Barr, Former Member of Congress
Morton H. Halperin, Director of U.S. Advocacy Open Society Institute
Suzanne Spaulding, Managing Director The Harbour Group
Professor Robert F. Turner, University of Virginia School of Law

Podcast, 65.2MB mp3


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - July 24, 2007

Witness: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, USDOJ

Podcast, 73.9MB mp3



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Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources - July 19, 2007

Podcast, 30MB mp3
background - here, here, here and here from Dover Bitch and here from Dengre

Full Committee Hearing:
The purpose of this legislative hearing is to receive testimony on S. 1634, a bill to implement further the Act approving the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, and for other purposes

Witnesses:
Mr. David Cohen , Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs, U.S. Dept. of Interior
Mr. James Benedetto , Labor Ombudsman, Dept. of Interior
Mr. Benigno Fitial , Governor, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Mr. Pedro A. Tenorio , Resident Representative of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Mr. Juan T. Guerrero , President, Saipan Chamber of Commerce


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The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials

House Judiciary Committee - July 11, 2007

Witnesses: Joseph Wilson, Rogert Adams, David Rivkin, Douglas Berman, Tom Cochran

part 1 - Podcast, 51 MB
part 2 - Podcast, 26 MB


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Department of Justice politicizing the hiring and firing of United States Attorneys, focusing on preserving prosecutorial independence (Part VI)

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - July 11, 2007

Witness: Sara Taylor

part 1 - Podcast, 33 MB
part 2 - Podcast, 18 MB


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Nomination of John Rizzo to be CIA General Counsel

Senate Intelligence Committee - June 20, 2007

Witness: John A. Rizzo

Podcast, 28 MB


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Preserving Prosecutorial Independence: Is the Department of Justice Politicizing the Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys? -- Part V

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - June 5, 2007

Witnesses: Bradley J. Schlozman, Todd Graves
part 1 - Podcast, 24 MB (Schlozman testimony)
part 2 - Podcast, 12 MB (Schlozman testimony)
part 3 - Podcast, 12 MB (Graves testimony)


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Preserving Prosecutorial Independence: Is the Department of Justice Politicizing the Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys? – Part IV

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - May 15, 2007

Witness: James B. Comey, former Deputy Attorney General, USDOJ

Transcript
Podcast, 35 MB *note: a small drop out (few seconds) during Senator Kohl's questioning.


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Responding to The Inspector General’s Findings of Improper Use of National Security Letters by the FBI

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - April 19, 2007

Witness: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, USDOJ

transcript
morning, pt 1 - Podcast, 36 MB
morning, pt 2 - Podcast, 24 MB
afternoon, pt 3 - Podcast, 31 MB * note: missing 2 mins of Senator Kyl's questioning.
afternoon, pt 4 - Podcast, 10 MB
afternoon, pt 5 - Podcast, 3 MB * schumer presser, recorded by newtonusr - thanks!


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Responding to The Inspector General’s Findings of Improper Use of National Security Letters by the FBI

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - April 11, 2007

Podcast

Witnesses: Bob Barr, Former Member of Congress
George Christian, Executive Director, Library Connection, Inc.
Suzanne E. Spaulding, Principal, Bingham Consulting Group Of Counsel, Bingham McCutchen LLP
Peter Swire, Professor of Law at the Ohio State University, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

DoD Inspector General’s report on activities of the Office of Special Plans

Senate Committee on Armed Services - February 9, 2007

Witness: Mr. Thomas F. Gimble, Acting Inspector General, DoD
Podcast (52.1 MB)



fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Securing America's Interests in Iraq: The Remaining Options. Iraq in the Strategic Context

Senate Committee on Foreign Relations - February 1, 2007

Witness:
Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret.), Former National Security Advisor
Podcast (16.8 MB)

Witness:
Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former National Security Advisor
Podcast (14.5 MB)



fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Exercising Congress’s Constitutional Power to End a War

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - January 30, 2007

Witnesses: David J. Barron , Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
Bradford Berenson, Partner,uke University School of Law, Former Acting Solicitor General of the United States.
Louis Fisher, Specialist in Constitutional Law, Law Library, Library of Congress.
Robert F. Turner, Center for National Security Law, Univ. of Virginia School of Law.

Podcast - 26MB


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice

Senate Committee on the Judiciary - January 18, 2007

Witness: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, USDOJ

morning - Podcast, 65 MB
afternoon - Podcast, 10 MB


fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a 'fair use'. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.