Powers of the VP to declassify
Yesterday, in his "mea culpa not" with Brit Hume, Cheney stated that he had authority through executive order to declassify state secrets. Steve Clemons asks, "Can Cheney be his own declassification machine?" He reviews the executive order on classification (No. 13292) promulgated by Bush on March 25, 2003 and concludes that nothing in that document gives the Vice President the authority to declassify state secrets on his own.
This is, of course, important since Scooter Libby has testified that Cheney ordered him to leak classified information. Should Cheney ever be indicted for ordering the leaking of state secrets (such as Valerie Plame's identity), he will certainly claim that they weren't state secrets because he had declassified them.
Reading some of the materials from those to whom Steve links, it appears that the ultimate authority to classify and, therefore, declassify information lies with the President in most cases. The Bush executive order gave the VP authority to classify secrets and, hence, probably to declassify the secrets he had previously classified, but it did not give the VP authority to declassify secrets that were classified elsewhere in the government.
I'm certainly no expert on this, but whether or not the power vests with the VP, I don't think the public is likely to look very favorably upon a government that declassifies state secrets so they can be leaked for purely political reasons. Maybe we should start shouting that message from the rooftops.
This is, of course, important since Scooter Libby has testified that Cheney ordered him to leak classified information. Should Cheney ever be indicted for ordering the leaking of state secrets (such as Valerie Plame's identity), he will certainly claim that they weren't state secrets because he had declassified them.
Reading some of the materials from those to whom Steve links, it appears that the ultimate authority to classify and, therefore, declassify information lies with the President in most cases. The Bush executive order gave the VP authority to classify secrets and, hence, probably to declassify the secrets he had previously classified, but it did not give the VP authority to declassify secrets that were classified elsewhere in the government.
I'm certainly no expert on this, but whether or not the power vests with the VP, I don't think the public is likely to look very favorably upon a government that declassifies state secrets so they can be leaked for purely political reasons. Maybe we should start shouting that message from the rooftops.
posted by walldon | 4:29 PM
1 Comments:
It would certainly be questionable that either the VP or the President would be considered to have the power to declassify without some effort to determine the best interests of the country. I would think using the authority for a personal vendetta or purely political reasons would be considered a violation of law. Of course, we get into mostly uncharted territory. The remedy, I suppose, would be impeachment and conviction by the Congress for high crimes and misdemeanors.
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