Evaluating Cheney's Claim Of Unilateral Authority to Declassify Info.

[ProSense]

The Vice Prick caught in another lie:

Evaluating Cheney's Claim Of Unilateral Authority to Declassify Information

By Lee Russ, Section OpEd
Posted on Sat Feb 18, 2006 at 07:47:46 AM EST

Snip...

A piece over at The Washington Note got me thinking about that claim, so I took a read through the Executive order which Bushites cite as giving Cheney automatic authority to unilaterally declassify info, Executive Order 13292, from March 25, 2003

Snip...

Only Part 3 deals with declassifying info once it has been categorized as classified. I read it and, as someone with legal training, I have to say it does not appear to give the vice president anything like unilateral declassification authority. Unless I missed something, for the White House to make that claim, it will have to employ the same kind of tortured analysis it uses to claim that the Joint Resolution authorizing military force against Iraq includes the authority to conduct domestic spying.

Snip...

(a) Did the info leaked by Libby "originate" with the President or Vice President? If not--if it originated with a fed agency, for example--then it should only be declassified through the mandatory declassification review process. Since the info we're talking about is from the National Intelligence Estimate, it seems unlikely that this information would "originate" with the Vice President or the President; it originates with the various security agencies.

(b) If the info is exempt from mandatory declassification review because it did originate with the President or Vice President, how can it be declassified given that the exec order does not specify how? On this one, I submit that it makes absolutely no sense for the Vice President to have unilateral power to declassify "de facto" by simply disclosing the info. That would set up a system where the Vice President's decision to declassify is unknown to anyone else, even the President, and certainly unknown to any other federal agencies which might be aware of reasons not to declassify specific info. That is not only nonsensical, but contrary to the obvious concern exhibited in the exec order that declassification of info that be done carefully, with opportunity for people who understand the implications to voice objections and concerns.

more...

http://watchingthewatchers.org/story/2006/2/18/74746/4869

[ProSense]

1. Dick Cheney: The Man and the Mission (NPR article)

Watching Washington
By Ron Elving

Dick Cheney: The Man and the Mission

NPR.org, February 17, 2006

Snip...

More recently, the Bush administration has raised warning flags with its efforts to discredit war critics tied to the State Department or the CIA (the Valerie Plame affair), and again with its efforts to wiretap domestic calls originating with suspected terrorists overseas (the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program). Cheney says such activities are plainly within the president's rights -- even his duties.

In the one interview Cheney has given about his hunting accident, he also mentioned to Fox News anchor Brit Hume that the vice president has the power to declassify documents. He referred to an executive order, signed the month of the Iraqi invasion, which extends to Cheney the presidential power to classify information.

Whether that extends to declassifying is far less clear, and Cheney immediately refused to say whether he had declassified any information unilaterally. But here again, Cheney presented this executive assumption of major authorities long thought to be delimited by law almost casually -- as if it were obvious to anyone.

Snip...

But here is where the game gets more difficult. If there is a long-lasting effect from the riot of interest in Cheney's wayward shotgun blast, it may be a heightened awareness of Cheney himself. He has prospered by operating offstage, and that may well be harder to do now. If Cheney has drawn too much attention to himself, people are likely to ask more questions about what he and the rest of the Bush team have been up to -- and plan to do next.

more....

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5222879

[wordpix2]

2. it is beyond the realm of reality that WH/VP classified Plame as an agent

on a specified CIA mission. Darth suggested he/WH declassified the info, which probably originated with CIA, when WH or VP's office is not originating agency, therefore breaking (another) law.

Darth is telling a tall tale to the American sheeple who usually don't bother reading such laws, even when they're called into question, to make his actions look perfectly fine and legal. He ought to be impeached on this alone, not to mention his hideous fraudulent war.

[ProSense]

3. Yup! Throw this on the pile of impeachable offenses. n/t