The Media Consortium's journal

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., May 14, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

On Friday, White House lawyers filed a motion in civil court, arguing against the House’s own filing last month in its attempt to enforce subpoenas against Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers. As I reported at the time, the White House appears to be arguing that the courts ought to stay out of the fight and let the House use other means of leverage to get the information it seeks from the executive branch.

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., May 14, 2008
Filed under: War Making and Oversight

The ACLU–conducting more oversight these days than Congress and the mainstream media combined–has gotten a hold of some previously unreleased documents detailing the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other overseas facilities. Here (PDF file), for instance:

By Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium

An internal FBI report detailing the Bureau's abuse of its data-gathering powers is shining a light on a favorite tool: the national security letter. If you receive one, you're not allowed to tell anybody. But you are obliged to fork over the information the letter demands. A Senate committee seeks to rein in that power with new legislation.

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., Apr 16, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

The missing White House email scandal raises one very obvious set of questions. Namely: Where’d they go and what did they say? Those questions will hopefully be addressed as Congress investigates the controversy, but the inquiries won’t answer another, perhaps equally important question: How can this be prevented from happening again?

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Thu., Apr 10, 2008
Filed under: War Making and Oversight

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Thu., Apr 3, 2008 Filed under: Congressional Oversight • House Judiciary Committee Reports

Last week, speaking in San Francisco, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that government agents:

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Fri., Mar 7, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., Mar 5, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

Paul Kiel wrote an important post yesterday spelling out what a lack of immunity might conceivably mean for the telecommunications companies that helped the government spy on Americans.

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., Mar 5, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

New questions have arisen about what, exactly, the government hopes to surveil. On Monday, Kenneth Wainstein, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security spelled it out:

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Thu., Feb 28, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a major step forward on contempt. In a letter to Jeffrey Taylor, the U.S. Attorney for the Distrect of Columbia, Pelosi certified the subpoena breeches by Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten: