Cheney’s Power to Declassify Information

[kerrygoddess]

Cheney’s Power to Declassify Information
February 16th, 2006 @ 10:36 am

In his interview with Brit Hume on Fox News last night, Dick Cheney said that he had “the power under a presidential executive order” to declassify information. Cheney offered this information when asked by Hume about Scooter Libby and the recent court filing in which Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed “Libby’s assertions to a grand jury that superiors had authorized him to spread sensitive information from a National Intelligence Estimate.”

“I’ve certainly advocated declassification and participated in declassification decisions,” he said, but he would not say whether he had done so unilaterally.

Cheney was referring to an executive order on classification of information first signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995. In March 2003, just days after ordering U.S. troops into Iraq, President Bush amended order to, among other things, give the vice president the same classification power as the president.

{snip}
“Cheney was referring to Executive Order 13292, issued by President Bush on March 25, 2003, which dealt with the handling of classified material. That order was not an entirely new document but was, instead, an amendment to an earlier Executive Order, number 12958, issued by President Bill Clinton on April 17, 1995.

{snip}
I’m no legal expert, but it does appear to me that Executive Order 13292 does have strict guidelines about revealing “the identity of a confidential human source.” If I am interpreting this Executive order correctly any declassified information would have gone through the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office. And under “Sec. 5.5. Sanctions. (a)” of Executive Order 13292, “If the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office finds that a violation of this order or its implementing directives has occurred, the Director shall make a report to the head of the agency or to the senior agency official so that corrective steps, if appropriate, may be taken.”

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1962

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

1. Tom Oliphant was just talking about this

on the Al Franken show.

Truly frightening what means this misadmin has gone to destroy dissenters.

[henslee]

4. He's been alive forever. And he wrote the very first song, His name is

Dick Cheneny, and he writes the songs. No one else means anything. He writes the songs....

[emulatorloo]

7. if you get a chance, read Blumenthal's "The Long March of Dick Cheney"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_112505N.shtml

The Long March of Dick Cheney
By Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday 24 November 2005

<snip>

For his entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him - and he's not about to give it up.

The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined.

Richard Nixon is the model, but with modifications. In the Nixon administration, the president was the prime mover, present at the creation of his own options, attentive to detail, and conscious of their consequences. In the Cheney administration, the president is volatile but passive, firm but malleable, presiding but absent. Once his complicity has been arranged, a closely held "cabal" - as Lawrence Wilkerson, once chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, calls it - wields control.

Within the White House, the office of the vice president is the strategic center. The National Security Council has been demoted to enabler and implementer. Systems of off-line operations have been laid to evade professional analysis and a responsible chain of command. Those who attempt to fulfill their duties in the old ways have been humiliated when necessary, fired, retired early or shunted aside. In their place, acolytes and careerists indistinguishable from true believers in their eagerness have been elevated.

<snip>

[rumpel]

2. Here's a great analysis post by leveymg

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x441331


fixed typo

[emulatorloo]

5. that was an excellent read -- thanks for posting the link -- EOM

[emulatorloo]

3. See also BLM's thread on this & Plamegate - premeditation, conspiracy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x442566

[warrens]

6. It's pretty dubious that declassifying Plames name went through channels

They did it on the fly in a fit of pique. Watch them if someone asks that question; it will suddenly be "executive privilege" and they won't be able to release it, goshdarnit.

[emulatorloo]

9. To paraphase Dick Nixon, If the (vice)President does it, it's not illegal

I guess that makes everything hunky-dory, doesn't it?!?!?!?!

[EC]

8. It also says that the Vice President has to be

working in the executive capacity...of which he has never done, he can only work in the executive capacity when the executive is incapacitated...of which ** has never been officially (the matter that he is constantly incapacitated is another story, but not official)

[Double T]

10. Declassifying information to be used for retribution and political gain

I call that an arrogant abuse of power by that SOB lying bastard.

[kerrygoddess]

11. Darth Cheney’s Powers

MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1961

[napi21]

12. There was an excellent post on DU this morning about this.

NO Cheney, nor any other individual has unilateral authority to declassify anything! There is a procedure that must be filed to do so, and it must have the approval of the person or Dept that originally classified the doccument!

I'll see if I can find the other post.

Here it is!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=441331