[Update (5:15 pm): The HPSCI Hearing on Potential Changes to FISA is now complete. Recorded video of the hearing testimony is provided below in two parts, due to the length of the hearing.]
The start to this week has been a busy few days on Capitol Hill for those interested in NSA surveillance, privacy, and congressional intelligence oversight. As Ruchi covered in the News Roundup and Notes, the USA Freedom Bill was formally introduced this morning by Sen. Leahy and Rep. Sensenbrenner, which–as discussed in an earlier post here on Just Security–aims to reign the NSA’s bulk collection of American’s communication records. Meanwhile, Senator Feinstein issued a statement yesterday claiming the Senate Intelligence committee “was not satisfactorily informed” of and stating her opposition to the NSA collection of intelligence on political leaders of U.S. allies. And President Obama is now expected to end the eavesdropping on these leaders.
All this while, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) is hosting a rare public hearing on “Potential Changes to FISA.” Just Security‘s Steve Vladeck is one of the witnesses at the hearing, and we are providing a live feed of the HPSCI hearing below. During the hearing, Julian Sanchez is livetweeting from the JSB twitter handle (@just_security), so be sure to follow us for Julian’s instant analysis of the hearing.
Part I:
Part II:
Video streaming by Ustream
Here is a complete list of the witnesses for the HPSCI hearing:
Panel 1
James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence
James Cole, Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
General Keith Alexander, Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service and Commander, U.S. Cyber Command
Chris Inglis, Deputy Director of the National Security Agency
Panel 2
Steven G. Bradbury, Partner, Dechert LLP
Stewart A. Baker, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Stephen I. Vladeck, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Scholarship, American University Washington College of Law
For related reading, Jack Goldsmith has an interesting post on Lawfare expressing skepticism of the White House and intelligence committee ignorance of the NSA’s surveillance of foreign leaders; while David Cole has a new post on the international law considerations implicated by NSA surveillance of foreign citizens.