Why Cheney's Office Is Exempt from Oversight
To put it mildly, I don't trust the vice president.... Cheney's office, over the objections of the National Archives, has exempted itself from a presidential executive order that seeks to protect national security information generated by the government, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Since just one half of the story is being reported so far, I accept the possibility that there may be more to it than that, but considering it's Cheney we're talking about...
The vice president's explanation for why his office is exempt from oversight is simple: they don't have to. His office says that since the vice president's role involves legislative branch duties (since the veep also casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate) as well, it's not really part of the executive branch, so the executive order doesn't apply. Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket.
Not to worry -- a spokeswoman for Cheney's office said they weren't breaking the law. Whew! What a relief. Thank God for that.
What a laugh. The veep's office gets access to classified information because of its relationship to the president, not because of its legislative duties. It clearly falls under the umbrella of the executive branch.
Under the order, executive branch offices are required to give the Information Security Oversight Office at the archives data on how much material it has classified and declassified. Cheney's office had been complying with the order from 2001-2002, then stopped. In 2004, Cheney's office blocked the archives from doing an onsite inspection of his office to make sure classified information was being properly protected. Oversight shmoversight! They actually turned them away. "No, can't let you in. So sorry. Wouldn't be prudent at this juncture. You know, national security and, you know, 9/11 mindset and al Qaeda and -- gotta run."
"To my knowledge," said Henry Waxman, chairman of the government oversight committee, "this was the first time in the nearly 30-year history of the Information Security Oversight Office that a request for access to conduct a security inspection was denied by a White House office."
Since becoming vice president, Cheney has fought attempts to peer into the inner workings of his office, hid the identities of industry executives who advised his energy task force (for all we know, members of the Saudi royal family participated in the meetings), and withheld details about his privately funded travel and Secret Service logs showing who visits his office, among other efforts to maintain secrecy.
Mr. Vice President, I have a secret for you. You suck.
- June 22, 2007
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