YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Coleen Rowley Testifies Before The Senate - 9/11 Was 100% Known of in Advanced, Preventable

Coleen Rowley Testifies Before The Senate - 9/11 Was 100% Known of in Advanced, Preventable — Transcript

by TEXAS LIBERTY ADVOCATE NETWORK ALERT · 4,869 words · 685 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:02take her I'm just gonna need a little
0:06bit of cooperation so I can see I do
0:18want to welcome special agent calling
0:21them Rolly of the FBI
0:23she's been an FBI agent for 21 years
0:27she's currently the chief division
0:29counsel for the Minneapolis field office
0:31of the FBI she came to the attention of
0:36this committee when she wrote a letter
0:37to director Muller that was given to
0:40members of Congress her letter refers to
0:43a number of issues this committee has
0:45heard from other FBI agents in the past
0:48and started a hatch and I felt that the
0:54nature of the hearing we're having today
0:55it would be good as she is she testified
1:09mr. chairman could I say something oh of
1:14course
1:15yeah well I I thank you mr. chairman
1:17because Special Agent Raleigh is a
1:21native in my home state of Iowa and
1:23she's also a native of my wife's
1:25hometown of New Hampton Iowa but more
1:28importantly agent Raleigh is a patriotic
1:31American who had the courage to put
1:34truth first and raise critical but
1:37important questions about how the FBI
1:39handled a terrorist case before the
1:42attacks and about the FBI's cultural
1:45problems agent Raleigh your testimony
1:48today is a great service to this
1:51committee the entire Congress the FBI
1:53and the American people and I thank you
1:55for coming we should be honored to hear
1:58your testimony today people like you who
2:01come forth to as as I put it to commit
2:06the truth of a very terrible sin among
2:09some federal employees
2:11but you you come forth with important
2:13information about the FBI there's been
2:19heroes like Fred Whitehurst before you
2:22who exposed the FBI crime lab scandal we
2:26had four agents last summer who revealed
2:28disparities in discipline and a pattern
2:30of retaliation against those who
2:32investigated misconduct inside the FBI
2:35agent Raleigh has thrown the spotlight
2:38on specific and general problems
2:40happening at the FBI before the
2:42terrorist attacks and she has important
2:45insights with her perspective from the
2:47field about what the FBI can do to
2:50change the FBI must improve so it can
2:53prevent future terrorist attacks and her
2:56testimony I believe is very important to
2:58help this happen miss Raleigh I believe
3:00is a dedicated public servant who tells
3:03it like it is she wanted to be an FBI
3:05agent since she was five years old and
3:08she had a distinguished has had a
3:11distinguished 20-year career at the FBI
3:14she worked in variety of of offices
3:18including New York where she
3:19investigated mafia after learning
3:22Italian and worked with people like Rudy
3:24Giuliani Louis Freeh and Michael
3:27Chertoff she worked in the minneapolis
3:30division now since 1990 and a number of
3:32areas including as the ethics offer
3:35officer agent raleigh i thank you again
3:37for agreeing to testify today so that we
3:41can hear your constructive criticism of
3:43the FBI to help it reform and to help it
3:45improve the senior senator from your
3:52state and under Grassley who is from
3:57your state of birth have said very good
4:01things about you and they both have gone
4:03out of their way to talk to members of
4:05the committee with all that now we'd
4:08like to hear from you and I should
4:10mention there's a roll call vote has
4:13started why don't you begin your
4:16statement if we have to stop at some
4:19point I will it won't be because of
4:20something your citizens only because we
4:22have to vote in person
4:23go ahead well the first thing I want to
4:26do is thank you for the opportunity to
4:29appear today I never really anticipated
4:32this kind of impact when I wrote this
4:35letter to director Miller to over two
4:38weeks ago I don't know if you know I
4:41think they've been saying I anguished
4:42over this a week
4:43it wasn't even quite a week that I it
4:46was more like a three-day period and it
4:48was a fairly sleepless three-day period
4:50when I began to initially just jot down
4:53my thoughts because they knew I had to
4:55appear before the staffers of the Joint
4:57Intelligence Committee and I didn't want
4:59to forget anything and also you'll
5:01probably find out I'm a little better on
5:03paper than I am verbally so I was kind
5:05of afraid of that that was one of the
5:08reasons I started to write it down I
5:09also had another big impetus that that
5:13was kind of behind this all and one of
5:15the things was I saw the new direction
5:19of the FBI perhaps it was kind of hard
5:21to discern when it was first announced
5:23but I thought I saw some impetus towards
5:26a little more additional bureaucracy and
5:31micromanaging from headquarters and I
5:33wanted to point out to director Muller
5:36that that seemed to fly in the face of
5:38what we should have learned from
5:40September 11th and the two things were
5:43the impetus for the letter I of course
5:48you know I have many years of experience
5:49in the FBI I really do care really about
5:53the FBI I've invested you know almost
5:55half my life in it and I do care also
5:58about our protection now I've got four
6:00children all my lot of my friends have
6:03children and I really think we ought to
6:06be doing our best to try to prevent any
6:08future acts of terrorism I I did in the
6:15last couple of weeks receive hundreds I
6:18was counting him for a while but I lost
6:20track but I received hundreds of emails
6:22and telephone calls from agents mostly
6:25agents some supervisors some prosecutors
6:28some retired FBI leaders and I'm not
6:32going to presume to speak for all of
6:34those people but when I looked at
6:36and I've read most of them there's a few
6:38I probably haven't gotten a chance to
6:39look at that have come in since I left
6:41but of the ones I I looked at I did see
6:44a real common theme emerging it seems
6:47like they're kind of struck a chord with
6:49a lot of people about this idea about
6:50the borough per see a lot of other
6:53agents told me similar stories and about
6:56cases that had you know maybe I'm
6:59justifiably not gotten anywhere and I
7:02have a you know I have a whole stack of
7:03those I think there is really the main
7:08thing being a real strong consensus that
7:10we need to streamline the FBI's
7:12bureaucracy in order to more effectively
7:15combat terrorism we need that agility
7:18that director Muller was speaking of
7:20this morning that agility and ability to
7:22quickly react and I really see that as
7:25if you get too top-heavy with too many
7:28layers he also mentioned that problem
7:31that you are going to be stymied I was
7:34encouraged by director Muller's
7:36testimony this morning because I think
7:38many of his ideas do seem to go in the
7:41right direction and actually are quite
7:43consistent with the various items I had
7:46in my letter to him he really has an
7:50extremely difficult job and that's an
7:52understatement
7:53when I talk about trying to trim the
7:56bureaucracy a little bit I don't know
7:58how you can underestimate that been
8:00tried before and failed and he just has
8:03a tremendously difficult job which I can
8:05appreciate I want everyone to know that
8:08no one today previewed in the FBI I of
8:11course they gave me approval to be here
8:13but no one was no one read the statement
8:16I did I did this one court quite quickly
8:19because I didn't know I was coming until
8:20recently and in this statement which I'm
8:23not going to read because you can read
8:25it when you want to I have some ideas in
8:28here some of these ideas again come from
8:31other agents some of whom are more
8:33experienced in intelligence than I am
8:35and then some of them are my own ideas I
8:38am the legal counsel so some of the
8:40legal issues are things that I've seen
8:42as an issue that have arisen in the past
8:44few years and you can read that at your
8:47leisure and if someone wants to ask me a
8:49specific
8:50question about any of those that's fine
8:54they're part of I guess what I can maybe
8:58go on beyond what director Muller I
9:00guess what I'm gonna try to do is the
9:03FBI made mistakes prior to September
9:0611th I made a little mistake if you look
9:09at my letter I made a mistake on the
9:11first page I got the date wrong it was
9:13August 16th I mean it I proof read it
9:16once and I missed it we all make
9:18mistakes and I think that there are
9:21other levels of our criminal justice
9:23system there are other federal agencies
9:25I'm not going to talk about but they're
9:26also the the prosecutors when you've
9:29tried to go criminal there's entities in
9:32the Department of Justice and so does
9:33some extent I've kind of brought and
9:35some of what I have written in my
9:37statement to include those other
9:39criminal justice entities that you know
9:42the FBI is it was real important but we
9:44certainly there's certainly other
9:46entities that are very important here to
9:49I was also encouraged I didn't I don't
9:54know if anyone asked a question about it
9:56today but when I read director Muller
9:58statement he points to integrity I think
10:01it's the last page also and he does
10:04point to that as an issue and I'm very
10:07encouraged by that because of course if
10:11you look at the end of my statement I
10:12think integrity is extremely important
10:15some of the people this morning did ask
10:18questions about how are we going to
10:20effectively combat terrorism we're going
10:23to be in a proactive environment which
10:26definitely has the potential of maybe
10:29interfering with people's civil
10:31liberties and how are we going to still
10:34protect those civil liberties and I
10:36honestly think integrity really plays
10:39into this whole item a lot of of when
10:43you're asking for some new law or some
10:45new authority it's perhaps not only what
10:48the law allows you to do but it's how
10:51it's going to be done and then it really
10:54boils down to an issue of trust with the
10:56agency or the entity that you're giving
10:58this particular power to and there are
11:01this there there are potentials for
11:03abuse if you
11:04over that line and I think as an agency
11:07we have to be so so completely truthful
11:11and honest that people are able to trust
11:15the FBI that we will not cross those
11:17lines and commit or commit any kind of
11:21civil rights violation or collect too
11:24much information etc that basically is
11:30all I want to say and then if anyone has
11:32a question from my statement what I'm
11:37going to do now we have about four
11:39minutes left in this boat I'm going to
11:41suggest everybody going vote will stand
11:43in recess for a minute or the amount of
11:46time it takes come back and that way
11:47we'll be uninterrupted thank you
12:13[Music]
12:33a fair break again
12:42must be hot weather nobody once go
12:44outside agent Rawley you may be
12:50interested in knowing and I haven't even
12:52had a chance to share this with Senator
12:57Grassley a copy of this is gone just her
12:59to hatch Dan Bryan to the private of
13:06Justice has sent me a letter following a
13:12request I made assuring both me and
13:16Senator hatch there will not be any
13:18retaliation against you a name form for
13:22the letter you sent the FBI director of
13:27course that would also extend to the
13:31testimony here I will put this letter to
13:33sort of had to myself in the in the
13:36record and Senator Grassley and I have
13:43both notified the Attorney General and
13:45the director that we would be following
13:47this matter carefully anyway let me ask
13:51this question of you
14:01I asked this question basically to
14:04director Muller this boys I want to ask
14:06you as well to your knowledge the agents
14:11in Minneapolis or headquarters for that
14:14matter ever try to do a routine search
14:18for reports on aviation schools or pilot
14:22training on the automated case system
14:24I'm not talking about putting in
14:26somebody's name but for search words
14:29like aviation schools are or pilot
14:34training anybody did that well I know a
14:42little bit about our our ACS system and
14:47the records we have and as well as the
14:49search methods we have because I also do
14:51our Freedom of Information requests and
14:54of course there are strict rules in
14:56place about how we search and when we
14:58people write to us you know if we find
15:00their name our main system of Records
15:03our central record system is indexed
15:06according to the name of the subject
15:08usually so for instance in a case where
15:11a particular suspect was named the
15:14normal method of searching would be to
15:16search that name only we also have we do
15:21have the ability to search some text for
15:24a word but unlike for instance if you
15:27are doing LexisNexis research you can
15:29put in the Koala and or and there's all
15:32different ways that you can search our
15:34FBI search is probably the most
15:37fundamental rudimentary thing you can
15:40just put in a word so for instance if
15:43you put in airline to do a text
15:44retrieval you would get up such a volume
15:47of Records that it would be impossible
15:49to review it's almost impossible to do
15:52just a one word text now you can put in
15:55aviation schools well what you can't do
15:58for instance in LexisNexis when you're
16:00searching for things you can put those
16:01qualifiers in that narrow it down and we
16:04can't we have no way of doing that we
16:06can put a word in you could put an
16:08aviation I think we could you can put in
16:10aviation schools so you might
16:14you would just beginning foul you know
16:15records that you couldn't possibly
16:16review now what the normal method is we
16:19do search those names and that that's
16:22because the subjects names are indexed
16:24so for freedom of information that's
16:26what I do and you do I think he
16:28mentioned that you have to have the
16:29correct spelling that's that's right I
16:31mean if you're one letter off you may
16:32not turn up a record this doesn't do you
16:34much good if you're looking for somebody
16:37for example use nitroglycerin and types
16:39of bombings and is going around with an
16:41alias which changes bombing to bombing
16:45what about the director said in his
16:49testimony that your your office couldn't
16:54have brought up the Phoenix electronic
16:57communication on the computers and use
16:59it in connection with the Misawa case
17:02but the headquarters could have done
17:05that is that your understanding I don't
17:08know specifically about that ec but I do
17:11know that prior to September 11th a
17:13number of classified documents and I
17:16probably almost all classified documents
17:19were blocked so that only certain people
17:21on a need-to-know basis would would be
17:25able to if you went into the computer
17:27for instance and you didn't have that
17:28access you aren't going to have you're
17:30not gonna be able to see those things it
17:32was also in public corruption cases
17:33other types of cases that we had this
17:35blocking and it served a good purpose in
17:38a way because you know it really keeps
17:40the people maybe from abusing it but if
17:44you have citizens pushing a cleared
17:46person the head of your office has a
17:48Phoenix office others they want to do a
17:51computer search on the FBI is ACS
17:54computer network it's still difficult
17:56for them to do is that correct that's
18:00true I don't know exactly how this
18:02blocking you know what people in each
18:04office were unblocked in which weren't
18:06typically it was the people who had a
18:08need to work on that case only
18:10unfortunately some of the people may
18:14know something about it I'm not gonna be
18:16able to go much further
18:18you wrote that a supervisor at FBI
18:21headquarters made changes to the
18:24Minneapolis agents affidavit I'm talking
18:26about the fysop process
18:27now you wrote that they made changes to
18:30the agents affidavit they quote to use
18:34your words set it up for failure now the
18:37New York Times is also reported that
18:38another headquarters agent was basically
18:41banned from the courts from the FISA
18:43courts by the judge based on his past
18:47affidavits I know that the response some
18:52of these problems FBI's Institute's are
18:54so-called
18:55woods procedures and we put that in the
18:57records been Declassified put in the
18:59record this morning do you think that
19:03some of these problems where the place
19:05the court made headquarters more
19:06cautious and risk-averse and process in
19:10the price applications to the court I've
19:13never actually served at headquarters so
19:16I'm I guess I would only be speaking
19:19from hearsay and as well as maybe the
19:22opinions of some of the people that have
19:23called me and email me I think that when
19:28incidents occur where people in the FBI
19:31are disciplined or even even
19:35investigated possibly I think there are
19:37some consequences to that and it does in
19:39the future make them much more careful
19:41in the instances that I'm aware of in
19:43our office where that's happened we have
19:45typically in order not to repeat the
19:48problem we've instituted some kind of
19:50procedure that makes it more difficult
19:52so I think that in a way you know from
19:56what I know of it and again I've never
19:57served in headquarters that I would
19:59probably agree
20:00he also wrote that you and the agents in
20:03Minneapolis were frustrated with the
20:05headquarters agent that was assigned to
20:06the Masoli case and it actually hindered
20:10your investigation did you or any other
20:13supervisor agent and a Minneapolis
20:15called agent your concern would call his
20:19supervisor or others in Washington to
20:22complain about this before September
20:2411th I'm of course a little bit
20:29restricted in what I can talk today
20:30about the events of pre September 11th I
20:33had put that in my statement I failed to
20:36mention it earlier when I comment I'm
20:38gonna try to comment in a general way
20:40avoid the specifics prior to the events
20:43prior and not get into true real facts
20:45when I wrote the letter to director
20:48Muller I think some of the news accounts
20:50may be misunderstood I really was
20:54speaking more from a third party
20:57perspective and talking about what I saw
21:00our agents and other people in our
21:03office as opposed to me personally I
21:05there was a word in the first page I
21:07said I had a peripheral role and I think
21:10that's very accurate I did have a role
21:11but it was peripheral and when you asked
21:15if other people took these actions you
21:17know I I will say this this we have a
21:22culture in the FBI that there's a
21:24certain pecking order and it's pretty
21:27strong and it's very rare that someone
21:30picks up the phone a rank or two above
21:34themselves it would have to be only on
21:37the the strongest reasons typically you
21:40you have to pick up and call you know
21:42pick up the phone and talk to somebody
21:44who is at your rank so when these when
21:47you have an item that requires review by
21:50a higher level it's incumbent for you to
21:53go to a higher level person in your
21:55office and then for that person to make
21:57a call the Inspector General talked to
22:00you about this case I've had a call from
22:03the Inspector General but so far we
22:05haven't gotten into any role fax or
22:07anything when did he first contact you I
22:11I was contacted by an investigative
22:14counsel from the Office of Inspector
22:17General NASA and it was basically just
22:19to introduce introduce herself how long
22:22ago it was last week I think just a day
22:28or two after director Muller announced
22:31that it would be turned over to the
22:32Office of Inspector General thank you
22:34and you've raised an important issue
22:37also about the so called McDade law and
22:40your testimony you know that law was
22:43slipped into a massive omnibus
22:44appropriations bill some of us called
22:46ominous appropriations bills back in
22:491999 senator hatch
22:52and Senator Wyden have been trying to
22:53fix this problem 14:37 to fix the
22:59problem I want you know there's some of
23:01us on the committee that recognize it is
23:03a problem and Senator hatch and I are
23:06trying very much to fix the problem
23:09we'll keep trying eventually successful
23:12he came very close we thought we had it
23:14fixed in the USA PATRIOT Act but he's
23:25committed to get it fixed
23:29what a welcome you to the committee miss
23:31Rowley and the outside I want to thank
23:34you for appearing before the committee I
23:36also commend you for your letter of May
23:3821st to director Muller that letter
23:42raises a variety of significant issues
23:45that need to be considered during the
23:47reorg any reorganizing of the FBI and I
23:51can only imagine how difficult it was
23:52for you to write the letter and then
23:54forward it to director Muller and others
23:56so I want to ask you a few questions to
23:58clarify some statements in the letter in
24:01the c-curve use them on aspects of the
24:04specific reorganization plan I believe
24:08the FBI is most important law
24:11enforcement agency in the world and I
24:14know you do too
24:15and that's why you wrote the letter and
24:17you'd like to have it continue to be a
24:20great agency but in your letter you
24:22detail the difficult is you and the
24:24Minneapolis agents encountered in
24:26seeking a search warrant under the
24:29Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
24:30procedures we've been referring to that
24:33as FISA all day what the FISA and your
24:37legal training what modifications do you
24:40believe may be warranted to defy the
24:42statute in order to enable the FBI to
24:45obtain such approvals when investigating
24:48terrorists well I heard some of the
24:52discussion this morning about the the
24:55necessity to perhaps take out the
24:58working on behalf of a foreign power
25:01aspect in thinking about that and to be
25:04honest they haven't thought about
25:05a whole lot and in addition I have not
25:08had that much personal experience in
25:10working with the face the process our
25:12office is not as involved as other
25:15offices would be however I think in a
25:18way just knowing what I know about
25:20criminal and totality of circumstances
25:23etc I am not quite sure that it needs to
25:26be modified I think in a way perhaps
25:28what we have is because probable cause
25:31and proving or shown making these
25:34showings that are required are not like
25:37a DNA test they're not a litmus test you
25:39can't put it in and have it come out a
25:41hundred times the same way and what can
25:43happen is mindsets in over time
25:46different interpretations and you can
25:49have something becoming unduly difficult
25:52when when you actually look back maybe
25:54ten years ago this wasn't the case and
25:56there was basically a lesser standard I
25:59think when you look at totality of the
26:02circumstances and probable cause you are
26:05looking at more probable than not I'm
26:07not even quite sure if the physis I
26:10think face the statute requires it as
26:12well more probable than not and I think
26:14that if you look at a totality if
26:16someone is working on behalf of a
26:18foreign power these terrorists entities
26:22are not like countries they don't have
26:24embassies they don't send us their
26:27membership lists they don't send us
26:29their little organizational charts
26:33I worked mafia cases in the nineteen
26:35eighty and the Mafia didn't do that
26:36either we didn't they didn't send us
26:39their membership we had to figure it out
26:41and after a few years we certainly did
26:44have hierarchies of each organized crime
26:47family but that that was gained from
26:49surveillance it was gained from little
26:51snippets of information we would get
26:53from wiretaps that so-and-so is working
26:57for so-and-so and I think that we should
26:59be able to use that same type of thing
27:01for demonstrating that someone is
27:03working on behalf of a foreign power
27:05especially with a terrorist organization
27:07and I'm not sure that the language needs
27:09to be modified but I think we need to
27:11realize that it's this almost the same
27:13type of thing that we're up against we
27:15are not going to get concrete
27:17membership lists organizational charts
27:20that we can say okay or even the
27:22definition of the group sometimes these
27:25groups are very amorphous and by nature
27:28terrorism groups operate more
27:30effectively without having real defined
27:33hierarchies and who reports to who etc
27:36so that's kind of my take on it of
27:39course to a large degree we're talking
27:40about surveillance and unless you can
27:43show that they are operatives for a
27:45foreign power or that they you have
27:47probable cause to believe that they are
27:50part of Al Qaeda's in this particular
27:53case you can't get the right to just
27:56surveil and say that's what I think is
27:59and many people are concerned on the
28:02other side that that if we grant that
28:04broad right then it'll be misused sooner
28:08or later by somebody who would not be as
28:09perspicacious as you are or or director
28:12Muller is but I see it's a big problem
28:15because as you can see we basically
28:18couldn't get surveillance on I think
28:21basically all of those twenty I'm not
28:25gonna comment on all the facts but of
28:27the case I I my analysis of the case is
28:32that perhaps that you know it already
28:35exists you've read my letter and I think
28:38that it's an it's a it's an obstacle and
28:40I think maybe it's a possibility to
28:42consider whether maybe that that amount
28:44or that thresholds it should be somewhat
28:47eased especially in cases with
28:49terrorists where it's it's hard to but I
28:51think things like surveillance and
28:53knowing who met who and things like that
28:55should figure into it alright the agent
28:57rarely since your letter of May 21st the
29:00Attorney General was issued and new
29:02investigative guidelines that will
29:03expand the FBI's investigative tools now
29:07given your experience in the field can
29:09you describe in practical terms how will
29:11these new guidelines assist the FBI at
29:14least the field agents in carrying out
29:16the FBI mission or missions I have not
29:21had a chance to really fully read the
29:24modifications I have heard what the
29:27three you know the main topics that have
29:30been brought up about go
29:31into public meetings and surfing the net
29:33and there is one additional thing I
29:36think in those AG guidelines which
29:37delegates down to the SA sees the
29:40ability and the authority to open up a
29:42case a preliminary inquiry to the extent
29:47that I am definitely and I think we the
29:50the rest of the agents I've heard from
29:52are definitely in favor that when it's
29:54possible to delegate down to a lower
29:57authority level we will be more nimble
29:59and agile I am very much in favor of
30:02that ability to open up a preliminary
30:04inquiry by the SA see that aspects good
30:07I do want to maybe at some point get the
30:10chance to talk about how I know people
30:13this morning we're talking about their
30:16fear that some of these new abilities to
30:21monitor public meetings I have a little
30:24unique insight because I process Freedom
30:25of Information cases and I can I read
30:28some of our old files from the 1950s and
30:31I will see in there where we got the
30:34people back then for a lot of reasons
30:36got a little carried away when they went
30:38to a meeting they recorded everyone who
30:41came whether they were important or not
30:43whether the person advocated whatever
30:47you know a terrorist point of view or
30:50whatever and I see that type of thing
30:53that happened in the past or what I
30:55think that we need to do is a lot of is
30:58in the how and if you go to a public
31:01meeting for instance maybe someone maybe
31:03we've gotten a little bit of information
31:05that someone in that meeting might be
31:07discussing a terrorist act I think it is
31:10very good and logical that someone would
31:13go and sit in just to make sure that
31:15doesn't happen so if in fact a person
31:19stands up and says hey let's all do this
31:23let's all you know undertake this and
31:26gives a speech about undertaking an act
31:27of terrorism we are now going to be in a
31:29position that we will know it now if
31:32that same agent even based on a good tip
31:35goes to the meeting and people are
31:37merely engaging in their First Amendment
31:39rights here's the the thing nothing
31:42happens
31:42from that information that's the
31:43difference in the 50s we don't come back
31:46and record who was there we do not look
31:49into the people

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Coleen Rowley Testifies Before The Senate - 9/11 Was 100% Known of in Advanced, Preventable by TEXAS LIBERTY ADVOCATE NETWORK ALERT , generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,869 words across 685 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.