Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Cheney exempts his own office from reporting on classified material

A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents. More than 80 agencies have collectively reported to the National Archives that they made 15.6 million decisions in 2004 to classify information, nearly double the number in 2001, but Cheney continues to insist he is exempt.

Not only has the administration reported a dramatic increase in the number of documents deemed "top secret," "secret" or "confidential," the president has authorized the reclassification of information that was public for years. An audit by a National Archives office recently found that the CIA acted in a "clearly inappropriate" way regarding about one-third of the documents it reclassified last year.

Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government," Bush said in his executive order on classified information. "Nevertheless, throughout our history, the national defense has required certain information be maintained in confidence in order to protect our citizens."

Bush and Cheney have made it clear they are intent on reclaiming presidential powers lost by Bush predecessors. That erosion of power started with Richard Nixon's losing fight over the privacy of his papers after the Watergate scandal and continued through Bill Clinton's impeachment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Libs are so funny these days. All they do is complain about Bush and every once in awhile Cheney. I just want to offer them a tissue, a bucket for their tears, or the world's smallest violin. Libs have no credibility because it is the same damn song repeated ad infinitum. Now, I just wonder what they will say when the DJIA passes its highest point ever before November. Notice how quiet libs are now about the economy and the fags?

If you wanted to win an election, all you have to do is point out how they are not conservatives to republicans. Conservatives disagree with your views, MTJ. All you have to do is talk about how liberal these current republicans actually are.

Talk about Bush's national security with the borders wide open. Bush is a failure on national security with this situation. Talk about Bush spending like Howard Dean on speed. What conservative is pleased with that? Talk about the "values voters" in actuality for once. What did they mean by values? That means we are pro-life and against fag marriage. Yet, the murder of the epitome of innocence has not been slowed on bit. BUSH CALLED THE MINUTEMEN VIGILANTEES!!! ALL conservatives should be completely disenfranchised with these republicans because of their performance. This is where you will win points. Class is over.

The "open minded party of diversity," unless of course you disagree, has killed itself. Do you think we voted FOR Bush??? No, we voted AGAINST Kerry. This concept is foreign to libs revealing the obvious lib bias of the incompetent lib media.

Mike in Poli Sci 101