she's also most importantly and stoutly a swarthmore graduate. they worked so hard it's very conscious of her undergraduate institutions as my daughter applied and i think it all probably started at swarthmore. thomas ricks is a yale man. he was an outstanding reporter for "the wall street journal" and "washington post." he he's earned to pulitzers, not one, but too. he. he has an award-winning blog was today for sort of like a bullet there. and he is of course the senior fellow at the center for new american security. he's the author of two outstanding books on iraq. as you've all know i'm sure a fiasco, which covered 2003 until 2005 and more recently began but what about that the next couple of years after that 2006 until 2008. he's also the author of a very recent cna s. report on iraq arguing that 2010 this year is going to be a pivotal year in the iraq war. and then last but by no means least and are trained brings two different dimensions to this discussion this morning. here's a middle east scholar having really studied worked, lived, foug

weitzner has a bachelor's degree from swarthmore and a degree from buffalo law school and we think heo make the opening statement? >> thank you. i want to thank you, senator durbin and colburn for inviting me to testify and for your longstanding interest in the subject. i followed this issue quite closely and the subcommittee's involvement since the part one hearing in 2008 and it's great you are pursuing this. when you first addressed internet freedom the primary concern of the tests were content filtering on the internet and harassment and the rest of digital activists. these persist today as the sector clinton highlighted in her january 21st speech on the internet freedom the state department continues to protest the a rest detention and harassment of bloggers in iran and china, vietnam and elsewhere. and countries that seek to filter access to information are becoming more skilled at doing so. these problems persist but the threat to internet freedom are expanding beyond restricting access to content. as again secretary clinton described repressive regimes are coopting the media t