ISOO urged to compel VP to report on secrecy

[babylonsister]

How can Cheney blatantly get away with disobeying laws? Who's watching him?

Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

ISOO URGED TO COMPEL VICE PRESIDENT TO REPORT ON SECRECY

The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) should exercise
its authority to compel the Office of the Vice President to
disclose how frequently it classifies and declassifies
information, the Federation of American Scientists urged in a
letter to ISOO Director J. William Leonard.

For the third year in a row, the Office of the Vice President (OVP)
has failed to disclose such data, as all executive branch entities
that handle classified information are required to do for
publication in the ISOO annual report to the President (Secrecy
News, 05/26/06).

But the OVP did not simply neglect to report the data, it declared
that it had no obligation to do so.

OVP spokeswoman Lea Ann McBride told the Chicago Tribune last week:
"This has been thoroughly reviewed and it's been determined that
the reporting requirement does not apply to vice president], which has both legislative and executive
functions." ("Cheney Keeps Classification Activity Secret" by
Mark Silva, Chicago Tribune, May 27.)

There is no basis for this claim that the OVP is exempt from
reporting.

"Nothing in the executive order excuses the OVP from reporting on
classification activity in the performance of its executive duties
merely because it also has separate legislative functions," I
wrote in a May 30 FAS letter to ISOO.

"Since the OVP has publicly staked out a position that openly
defies the plain language of the executive order, I believe ISOO
now has a responsibility to clarify the matter. Otherwise, every
agency will feel free to re-interpret the order in idiosyncratic
and self-serving ways."

FAS asked ISOO either to directly compel the OVP to comply with the
executive order under threat of sanction, or else to formally
request a determination from the Attorney General on the
applicability of the executive order to the OVP.

"I recognize that the OVP's classification activity is
quantitatively small, by comparison with other executive branch
elements, and that it could easily be overlooked without much
detriment to the aggregate statistical reporting by ISOO," our
letter stated.

"But by casting its non-compliance as a matter of principle, the
OVP has mounted a challenge to the integrity of classification
oversight and to the authority of the executive order. In my
opinion, it is a challenge that should not go unanswered," I
wrote. See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2006/05/isoo-ovp.pdf

"You raise some valid points," wrote ISOO Director Leonard in an
initial email response on May 30. "I will pursue."