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Bush Claims Oversight Exemption Too
WASHINGTON - The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney's office, President Bush's office is not allowing an independent federal watchdog to oversee its handling of classified national security information.
An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 - amending an existing order - requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn't specifically say so, Bush's order was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the president's office, a White House spokesman said.
The issue flared Thursday when Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) criticized Cheney for refusing to file annual reports with the federal National Archives and Records Administration, for refusing to spell out how his office handles classified documents, and for refusing to submit to an inspection by the archives' Information Security Oversight Office.
The archives administration has been pressing the vice president's office to cooperate with oversight for the last several years, contending that by not doing so, Cheney and his staff have created a potential national security risk.
Bush amended the oversight directive in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to help ensure that national secrets would not be mishandled, made public or improperly declassified.
The order aimed to create a uniform system for classifying, declassifying and otherwise safeguarding national security information. It gave the archives' oversight unit responsibility for evaluating the effectiveness of each agency's classification programs. It applied to the executive branch of government, mostly agencies led by Bush administration appointees - not to legislative offices such as Congress or to judicial offices such as the courts.
"Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government," the executive order said.
But from the start, Bush considered his office and Cheney's exempt from the reporting requirements, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in an interview Friday.
Cheney's office filed the reports in 2001 and 2002 but stopped in 2003.
As a result, the National Archives has been unable to review how much information the president's and vice president's offices are classifying and declassifying. And the security oversight office cannot inspect the president and vice president's executive offices to determine whether safeguards are in place to protect the classified information they handle and to properly declassify information when required.
Those two offices have access to the most highly classified information, including intelligence on terrorists and unfriendly foreign countries.
Waxman and J. William Leonard, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, have argued that the order clearly applies to all executive branch agencies, including the offices of the vice president and the president.
The White House disagrees, Fratto said.
"We don't dispute that the ISOO has a different opinion. But let's be very clear: This executive order was issued by the president, and he knows what his intentions were," Fratto said. "He is in compliance with his executive order."
Fratto conceded that the lengthy directive, technically an amendment to an existing executive order, did not specifically exempt the president's or vice president's offices. Instead, it refers to "agencies" as being subject to the requirements, which Fratto said did not include the two executive offices. "It does take a little bit of inference," Fratto said.
Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' government secrecy project, disputed the White House explanation of the executive order.
He noted that the order defines "agency" as any executive agency, military department and "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" - which, he said, includes Bush's and Cheney's offices.
Cheney's office drew criticism Thursday for claiming that it was exempt from the reporting requirements because the vice president's office is not fully within the executive branch. It cited his legislative role as president of the Senate when needed to break a tie.
At a Friday news conference, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said constitutional scholars could debate that assertion.
But, she said, Cheney's office is exempt from the requirements because the president intended him to be.
Cheney's office did not comment Friday.
Several security experts said they were not aware that the president had exempted his own office from the oversight requirements.
But they said it fit what they saw as a pattern in the administration of avoiding accountability, even on matters of national security.
"If the president and the vice president don't take their own rules seriously, who else should?" said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute at George Washington University in Washington that lobbies for open government.
"If they get a blank check, it's a recipe for disaster. I can't think of a quicker way to break down the credibility of the entire security-classification system."
Blanton noted that the White House had acknowledged that a substantial number of in-house e-mails had disappeared in recent years, at a time when investigators wanted to review them for possible evidence of inappropriate leaks of classified information.
"If there are all these great safeguards in place, then where are the e-mails?" Blanton asked.
Waxman, chairman of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote an eight-page letter to Cheney on Thursday in which he complained that the vice president had refused to adhere to the executive order. Waxman, citing the criminal investigation of Cheney's office related to the leak of a CIA agent's identity, suggested that the vice president's office was a national security risk.
He also accused Cheney or his staff of trying to have the archives' watchdog unit abolished after its director, Leonard, pressed for more oversight and for a legal opinion from the Justice Department as to whether the executive order applied to the vice president's office.
Perino denied that attempts were made to abolish the unit.
A spokeswoman for the archives, Susan Cooper, would not comment Friday on whether the archives' watchdog unit ever tried to inspect the president's executive office or obtain annual classification reports.
Fratto said that he was not aware of such an effort but that it would be rebuffed. "I'm not going to get into hypotheticals, but the executive order does not grant them that authority," Fratto said.
He noted that the oversight requirements did, however, apply to the National Security Council, the president's principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials.
Fratto said that the White House and Cheney's office had a legal obligation to adhere to the executive order's guidelines regarding the proper handling of classified documents, even if they didn't have to submit to oversight by an outside agency.
Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times
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67 Comments so far
Show AllHello!
Sorry for my rant yesterday.
Reading all those responses to that article makes me feel good. Its just that when I think of that jackass and his little troop of jackbooters (Rice included) I get so pissed off.
And the friggin' banana didn't even get elected the first time around. How can you folks stand it?
I'm now doubting the so-called truth of the whole thing since that bad day in 2001.
It's all too conveniant. Its impossibly conveniant.
These guys should be checked out for international war crimes.
And at the very least, ban all their relatives, siblings, kids, icluding the family dogs/cats, etc from EVER running for government election.
This ban should also extend to anyone currently serving in their government (IE- Condoleeza Rice and any other Big Daddy oil-types).
Why was Poppy cursed in his old age with a delusional wife talking about she isn't gonna worry her "pretty little head" while breaking mirrors left and right at Poppy's Houston hotel suite and a nutty son talking about his executive, unitary, dictatorial powers as our nutcase in chief.
I'm with shut the country down This Summer folks. Even if we only get half the people, the other half will have their ability to function severely diminished. Perhaps it's time for states to secede. Get ready to hold out on a personal level. If not Now, When? When it's Too Fucking Late. Bring it ON-- Let Bush and followers fight the American People this Summer.
Duh! Of course. With the Democrats protecting his back and making it clear he will never be impeached, this is the very logical decision for both Bush and Cheney to take.
people, are you surprised by this? these people stole the election, twice.
but worse than that, the crime of crimes, the most serious crime you can commit, by which all others are dwarfs in comparison, is lying the country into war, an illegal war of aggression. read your nuremburg principles.
Blogs are not action.
I'm not one who likes to be left out of things, so I am also claiming oversight exemption.
Slippery Devils, aren't they.
Congress knows it cannot impeach Bush because they know that they are complicit in his overseas adventures and outrageous domestic policies. Exposing Bush exposes their own bloody hands and those of their behind the scenes backers i.e. corporations, defense contractors and other foriegn and domestic lobbying organizations who prefer not to be exposed to the glaring light of day in Washington!
As my wife said, "And we thought the Ayatollah Khomeni was bad! He doesn't hold a candle to the Ayatollah Cheney."
"Or his pet monkey," says I.
Gail,
You raise a good question. But I think you need to keep in mind that Bush is the "decider!" We are dealing with a fascist moron who has no regard for law whatsoever! Congress as you and I well know will go nothing. So it is up to we the constituents to handle the matter ourselves. I know that I would probably follow in the footsteps of Charles Dickens, only my book would be titled "A Tale of Two Idiots" (Bush and Cheney).
One question we need answered by Constitutional Scholars would be:
Where the hell in the Constitution is it written that Presidential Executive Orders override the Constitution, Congress and the Supreme Court?
Secrecy is a disease that is spreading through the White House administration. I suggest a strong course in antibiotics to purge 1600 Penn. Ave of the foreign bodies (because they sure are un-American).
Its not like they have to give their secrets away, so what do they need to hide?
Excessive secrecy, detention without charges, loss of civil liberties are hallmarks of totalitarianism.
I like the bumper sticker on the radical womans car, "The only Bush I trust is my own". Along those lines another sticker says, Dick plus Bush equal screwed.
Would sombody please give George a blow job so we can impeach him.
I predict that Dickless wonder will die soon of heart desease and lil'l George will spend his days in a nut house.
Doesn't this whole question smack of an overdose of Rove's 'Government of Me, For Me and By Me?' This group needs a little, isolated country to rule according to their private constitution. Texas might be nice.
Its ridiculous at this point that we cannot impeach these people. It makes me wonder who holds the real power in Washington to keep these two at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Pelosi and Reid could de-escalate on Bush so he'd be impeached. Those two birds in hand'd be worth a Dick 'n Bush.
LOL, now why doesn't that surprise me? OMG!
They have their own government.
LOL, David you just made me laugh so hard!
dcbeltway, I can easily answer that question.
See: http://www.freedomtofascism.com/
David, your humor made me LMAO! Didn't Steven Segal star in a movie called "Above the Law?" I wonder if we could persuade him to go to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to kick some corrupt ass? I think it is time to boot a Texan, a Dick, and a Tirdblossom (Bush's nickname for Karl Rove) out of Washington!!!
What's the difference between the Bush Administration and a dictatorship?
Have the offices of the President and Vice President been privatized?
So when Bush said that it was easier if it was a dictatorship, he was not kidding. So begins the century of American dictatorship. And the democrats are complicit in this by not forwarding impeachment proceedings.
Granting even more power to this self anointed theocrat and his partner, by allowing them more sectecy, would be another step in surrendering our democracy over to them and their coherts. They have stolen two presidential elections, have pursued the most corrupt & deceptive presidential policies & selloutsin our history, and have inflicted unprecedented destruction to our system and environment.
They have used unprecedented tactics to keep power, such as character assassinations against those who oppose their policies underscore their dangerous goals–ie branding Senator Max Cleland (a triple amputee Vietnam Vet) as unpatriotic for sponsoring an inquiry into the causes of 9/11 which Bush opposed is unprecedented in our republic.
They now have commissioned a rogue mercenary force for this ill conceived war, which is at their disposal. Their motives are clear. We have never experienced a such a threat to our democracy. Wake up America, and force our legislators to remove this dangerous zealot and his team now--before its to late.
Dick plus Bush equals screwed
hilarious!
If anybody still thinks we have a representative government, think again. And anybody that is willing to die or be blown apart in Iraq, Afghanistan for these two pieces of slimy scum...I can't feel sorry for you. Ignorance is not bliss...it is unforgivable! Wake up, America and pay attention. Sports and entertainment is a diversion from the really important things in life. The most corrupt cabal in U.S. history runs rampant for six and a half years, telling one lie after another and getting away with it. What do WE THE PEOPLE, the citizens get?...investigations that usually go nowhere. Except for the very wealthy and the ruling class that send working people's kids overseas to kill, rape, torture, and plunder other countries that are weaker than ours, most Americans are struggling more and more to maintain a decent standard of living. Health care, pensions, wages, education, civil liberties, and the environment have been under steady attack by the Bush/Cheney/republican crime family ( along with the phony Democrats that collaborate with them ) . If this is what my fellow Americans want, then so be it. But if you don't want this persistant onslaught on the things mentioned, it is time to take direct action by WE,the AMERICAN WORKERS. For years, I've advocated the "seven magic word formula" to take back America.
TAKE TO THE STREETS, WITHHOLD YOUR LABOR . There it is folks. Peacefully done. Laddie, Daddie , and everyone, union and non-union alike. Workers of the world ,UNITE!
I'm ready when you are.
Agreed. It's time to throw the bums out. I'm ready. I wouldn't be paying ANY taxes either, it only encourages them.
It's regime change time. Let 'er rip folks.
This is our country and that's all there is to it, let's take it back from the theives in the white house NOW.
No wonder impeachment is "off the table." Neither Bush nor Cheney would accept that they are constitutionally subject to it. Congress would have to call in the troops to enforce it. But that would force the question of whose pleasure the US military now serves at: the people's or the president's. And Congress appears to have entirely forfeited the power over military affairs.
IMPEACHMENT! IMPEACHMENT! IMPEACHMENT! ALREADY........WTF?
If congress doesn't act, and act swiftly (something I doubt it is capable of doing), then the people have the right to deal directly with these issues.
I M P E A C H !
IMPEACH the son of a BUSH!
When the Patriot Act was passed, or domestic spying was questioned, the response by the PATRIOTS in our government and media was, "What do you have to hide?" And there is always that assumption in these cases of truncating freedom: if you are a good American, why would you need to be free to do things in SECRECY? Without attacking the premise of this assumption, I would simply like to turn it around. If the Bush Administration is a good, wholesome administration, what would it have to hide? Simple as that. They are obviously hunkering down for a battle for their legal lives. Completely aware that they have wrecked the Constitution and violated every human ethic ever imagined, they need to bury this stuff as deep as it can go. It is almost funny that Cheney thought to do it before Bush, and now Bush has come on board. You can hear him, like a little kid on a playground:
Oh, oh oh! Me too! Me too! Me too! I don't have to tell my secrets EITHER. Oooh, that's good, Dick. That's really good! Heh, heh, heh." Never realizing that Dick DID IT without suggesting that the president do it FIRST. Haliburton marches on while Bush twists in the wind? Was that the escape plan, Dick? Has anybody told Bush yet that he isn't part of the legislative branch, so Cheney's seriously twisted logic doesn't even COME CLOSE to applying? He's really not very bright, is he, our Mr. Bush?
But who is going to bring charges against these guys? Alberto Gonzales? Right. Much like murder as a method of gang initiation, these guys have so much dirt on each other that no one can break ranks without exposing their own criminal misdeeds. Of course, we have CONGRESS as a watchdog to the executive branch, but someone seems to have had that dog put to sleep.
A new mantra is spreading about the government not being "of the people, by the people, and for the people," and that we have no say in how it's run. I've seen it somewhere a couple of times, but unfortunately didn't take note of where I was. I'm sure before long it'll be chanted by all the Bushites.
Time to practice our goose step technique?
It appears that while WWII resulted in the end of genocidal anti-semitism -- clearly a crime against humanity -- it still allowed for unchecked unitary power which, ominously, can take the form of a pre-crime looking for a new batch of victims?
Tragically, as some have commented elsewhere, that as despicable as Hitler was -- apparently the German economy improved under his totalitarianism. With Bush & Co. we have all the unitary command, but nothing to show for it except debt, mismanagement, a lowering of international respect for our country, and poor bedfellows on many national benchmarks.
You'd almost think they were deliberately pillaging the US, as if there were no tomorrow. Perhaps incompetence is just a ruse for a politics of piracy?
Moses Kassandra: Excellent point as per reversing the premise of "what is it you feel the need to hide?"
Paul Bramscher: Since Bush professes to be a born again Christian, he may be deluded enough to BELIEVE in end times, in which case the only accountability required is what you can get away with THIS moment.
By the way, do these two not resemble apes in this photo? I mean I feel like I'm staring into the primate cage at the Bronx Zoo!
the jackboots have been warming up since we elected the joke (RR) and then cheered as he destroyed labor..sorry folks the boy george is good--very good..and the time for his dismissal passed on the evening of the 11th of sept 2001..if the boy knew he is criminal, if the boy did not know he is incompetent..oh well this too shall pass--hitler was destroyed in what--15 yrs..
Well...
Another dish of ugly food for thought:
I don't believe these clowns were ever legally elected in either bogus election they claim to have won, therefore, how can you impeach them if they weren't really elected? And that may end up being the basis of their claim that they aren't really subject to the oversight afforded the public in a system of checks and balances... ya think?
The only prayer we have is to act on what is specified in the second amendment...
Yikes. Whatever diety you believe in, help us all.
America, the new right wing fascist police state and how to do it properly
I am so glad the some got a chuckle from my quips. However it is important to remember this old saying...
The tyrant fears laughter more than the assasins bullet. Laugh it up folks. Let's laugh these assholes out of office and into prison.
"(heh)...you know, this would be a lot easier if you just made me emperor." George W. Bush January, 2001.
If it's THEIR government, why should we obey THEIR laws?
Democracies historically only last about 200 years...
Bush and Cheney firmly believe that the "end times" are near and they can do whatever they want to since they are "Born Again" Christianites. There are no laws for rich folks, just us fools that try to make the rent and have a semi-decent living. We get to raise fodder for their wars and pay taxes so the rich can have more money.
And the reason our leading Dems and presidential candidates aren't jumping up and down yelling about this (and other) power grabs? Cuz they call Bush "Mr. Precedent", even if they don't like him as a President.
Vote Kucinich in the primaries and show them who's boss.
Hasta la democracia,
Peach McD in Durham NC
"Bush amended the oversight directive in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to help ensure that national secrets would not be mishandled, made public or improperly declassified."
Try again Chimpy...you and your pigs leak what you want out, and tie-up your dirty laundry-everybody can see that. And thank you for playing another round of "stupid is, as stupid does."
"If the President does it, it's not illegal."
"Disarm your WMDs or we will attack with WMDs."
"Go f**k yourself."
Just another chapter of the neocrazies Loonitary Executive Theory.
IMPEACH ! ! ! ! IMPEACH ! ! ! ! ! IMPEACH FOR gOD'S SAKE
Any doubts about the imperial president? The presidential directive recently signed which would allow Bush to declare martial law in the event of a "national emergency" -- by his definition. Its duration determined by this same executive. So, it is no wonder he and Cheney are declaring themselves above oversight under rules they will write as needed, when needed. Who still believes we are a nation of laws, and that elections count (in any sense of the word "count")? Impeach? Who in Congress even knows the definition of that? Impeach? I wish!
I'm encouraged by the sentiments shared in the above comments, but what will it take to arouse the rest of America (not to mention the impotent Congress) to what's happening here? Will Bush have done with it and just declare the suspension of the Constitution and sign an executive order making himself permanent fascist dictator?
The madness of King George and King Dick. So the same guys that want to tap your phone and e-mail without warrants want to be exempt from similar treatment. Yet this is their own executive order about the handing of classifying and declassifying information. And this revelation comes after we hear that thousands of e-mails are missing off of the White House official server and White House staff are using a Republican Party server for official communication.
Time to rip the stonewalling weaselly tactics away from Bush and Cheney. What do they have to hide?
My respect for Henry Waxman is still increasing after he investigated Halliburton relentlessly until they moved to Dubai and quit contracts with the government.
If what we are witnessing was a vast drama of mythic proportions, look at this photo and see that it utterly resembles two neanderthal apes deciding the fate of mankind. What an indictment against the human race... I'm still hoping for Divine intervention on that one, unless the zoo has a monkey cage keeper who has tools to tame these beasts that we do not.