VICE PRESIDENT MAKES SECRECY POLICY A JOKE (LITERALLY)

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24014

VICE PRESIDENT MAKES SECRECY POLICY A JOKE (LITERALLY)
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2007-06-26 17:24. Media

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy

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/

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