VICE PRESIDENT MAKES SECRECY POLICY A JOKE (LITERALLY)
The arcane details of national security classification policy became the stuff of late night comedy as White House officials struggled to justify the peculiar refusal of Vice President Dick Cheney to comply with the oversight requirements established by President Bush's executive order on classification.
For two successive days, the White House press briefing was dominated by incredulous reporters who wondered how the Vice President could claim that he both was and was not part of the executive branch; why he complied with oversight reporting requirements in 2001 and 2002, and why he then ceased to comply; and how the Vice President's behavior can be consistent with the executive order when the Administration's own Information Security Oversight Office says that it is not.
"I'm not a legal scholar," said an exasperated Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman. "I'm not opining on his argument that his office is making."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2007/06/wh062507.html
The story became certifiably big news last night when it was the subject of a five minute satirical segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (where I had a microsecond cameo). See "Non-Executive Decision," June 25, 2007, under "most recent videos":
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml
The Justice Department had said that the classification policy dispute was "under review" since Information Security Oversight Office director J. William Leonard asked the Attorney General in January 2007 to resolve the matter. But in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Justice Department revealed that no documents whatsoever had been generated by the purported review.
See "A New Cheney-Gonzales Mystery" by Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, July
2:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19391241/site/newsweek/
Congressional leaders are stirring the pot, warning that the Office of Vice President could suffer budget penalties if it does not comply with routine oversight procedures. See "Secrecy May Cost Cheney, Dems Warn"
by Elana Schor and Mike Soraghan, The Hill, June 26:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/secrecy-may-cost-cheney-dems-warn-2007-06-26.html
To recap: The internal executive branch conflict over the Vice President's non-compliance with the executive order was triggered by a formal complaint filed with the Information Security Oversight Office in May 2006 by the Federation of American Scientists (following a report in the Chicago Tribune by Mike Silva).
The FAS complaint was accepted by ISOO Director William Leonard, and was forwarded to the Attorney General in January with his request for an official interpretation of the executive order. There the matter lay for five months until Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, raised the issue to stratospheric heights last week with a letter to the Vice President questioning his Office's conduct.
The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio devoted an hour to the topic yesterday with Congressman Waxman, Peter Baker of the Washington Post, former Justice Department lawyer David Rivkin, and myself. See "The Executive Branch and Classified Information," June 25:
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/07/06/25.php
The controversy is playing out against the backdrop of a massive four-part series in the Washington Post on Vice President Cheney's role and conduct written by Barton Gellman and Jo Becker. The story had been under development for many months and Ms. Becker has since left the Post to go work for the New York Times. In a weird and probably unprecedented coincidence, she had a byline in front page stories in both the Washington Post and the New York Times on June 25
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Comments: 21
btw, wtg Ms. Becker, and cool about your microsecond appearance! I watched the Daily Show last night...
Apparently, not big enough, since he continues to just chug along with apparent impunity.
BTW, I got permission to take a Constitutional Law course as an undergraduate during the Nixon Impeachment hearings. What's going on now in the White House is far more serious.
She not only had disclose the minutes but the Republicans put the scare on the American citizen that health care was evil.
Cheney had the same type meeting with Enron and other energy companies, he was sued to disclose what went on behind those doors. Gues what? He did not have to disclose squat. I am sure they talked about the upcoming rise in gasoline prices and the BIG TAX BREAK they got from the Bush administration.
What else could they have talked about?
I don't agree that Cheney is Darth Vader. I think he's more Darth Siddious (the master); Bush is Vader (the apprentice).
Al Gore has some good insight into this.
Steve: GREAT job on reporting this. I swear, this administration is so actively ripping apart the Constitution and trying to re-write it, that if you don't watch the news for ONE day, you're out of the loop. I took Monday off, and look what I missed! Thanks for bringing yet another story to light about the rampant abuses by the Bush administration; may God help us as they continue to reign!
Sunday's story
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/
Monday's
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/
Tuesday's
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/a_strong_push_from_back_stage/
Wednesday's
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving_no_tracks/
Related Stories
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/06/27/GR2007062700422.html
I remember the Nixon era so vividly, and how many of my classmates then thought that we were on the verge of the collapse of the US Constitution, which would be the world's greatest nightmare. But we came through that despite the ongoing backstage financial interests which enable and manipulate such behavior in a President. Those backstage interests are now stronger than ever, but our Constitution and Bill of Rights have some very ancient and enduring facets to it, including the core of the Iroquois Confederation that had brought peace to much of the east-coast First Peoples for hundreds of years prior to Columbus.
FOCUS OF VP INQUIRY SHIFTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL
Congressional leaders who are investigating the refusal of Vice President Cheney to comply with executive branch procedures for oversight of classification and declassification activity yesterday asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to account for his sluggish handling of the issue.
Last January, J. William Leonard, the director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), asked the Attorney General to determine whether the Office of the Vice President is subject to reporting requirements like other executive branch agencies, or not.
A reply is not optional. The executive states clearly that "The Attorney General, upon request..., shall render an interpretation of this order with respect to any question arising in the course of its administration" (sec. 6.2b).
Yet no such reply has been forthcoming.
"Due to conflicting statements from your department, the status of your review of this matter is unclear," wrote Reps. Henry Waxman, John Conyers Jr., and William Lacy Clay in their letter to the Attorney General. "More than six months (sic) have passed since Mr. Leonard's letter to you, and the Information Security Oversight Office has received no response to its inquiry."
The House letter asked Attorney General Gonzales to reply to a series of questions regarding his review of the Vice President's status as a classifier.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2007/h062707.pdf
The Congressmen cited a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel reply to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists (first reported by Michael Isikoff in Newsweek this
week) indicating that "no documents" had been generated in response to the ISOO inquiry.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2007/06/olc-foia.pdf
On the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Patrick Leahy extolled the FAS request as a example of the utility of the Freedom of Information Act.
"Just this week, we witnessed the great value of FOIA in shedding light on a controversial policy within the Office of the Vice President regarding the handling of classified information, with news reports that a FOIA request to the Justice Department first revealed that the Attorney General may have delayed a review into the legality of this troubling policy," Sen. Leahy said in a June 27 statement on the status of the Open Government Act, which has been held up by opposition from a Republican Senator.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2007/leahy062707.html
In a June 25 letter, Sen. Dick Durbin asked the Vice President to comply with the requirements of the Executive Order "so that we will not be compelled to take corrective action in our appropriations bill."
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2007_cr/durbin062507.pdf
ADDINGTON AND THE QUESTION OF INTENT
Vice Presidential Chief of Staff David Addington defended Dick Cheney's refusal to submit to oversight by the Information Security Oversight Office in a June 26 letter to Sen. John Kerry.
"The executive order on classified national security information -- Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 -- makes it clear that the Vice President is treated like the President and distinguishes the two of them from 'agencies'," he wrote.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2007/06/ovp062607.pdf
Mr. Addington's claim is demonstrably false.
By presidential order dated October 13, 1995, the President delegated original classification authority to the Vice President under Executive Order 12958, along with other officials in the executive office of the President and various agency heads.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/clinton/oca.html
When the executive order was amended in 2003, that delegation of classification authority to the Vice President was not rescinded or modified. It remains in effect. Consequently, the Vice President's authority is comparable to that of the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of State.
Furthermore, as ISOO director J. William Leonard explained in his January 9, 2007 letter to the Attorney General, a "plain text reading"
of the order indicates that the Office of the Vice President is subject to the order's requirements. He noted that the OVP is granted one particular exemption, concerning the order's mandatory declassification review provisions.
"This sole explicit reference for the purpose of exempting the OVP from a provision of the Order supports an interpretation that the rest of the Order does apply.... otherwise there would be no need for an exemption,"
Mr. Leonard flawlessly argued.
By contrast, reported Michael Abramowitz in the Washington Post (June 27), "Addington did not cite specific language in the executive order supporting [his] view, and a Cheney spokeswoman could not point to such language last night. But spokeswoman Lee Anne McBride said the intent of the order, as expressed by White House officials in recent days, was 'not for the VP to be separated from the president on this reporting requirement'."
The President could amend the executive order at a moment's notice to exempt the Vice President from oversight. Or the Attorney General could render an interpretation of the order that favors the Vice President's position. But neither action has been taken.
Instead, the White House simply insists that the executive order does not mean what a "plain text reading" says that it means. By doing so, it degrades the machinery of government.