Thursday, June 21, 2007

Vice President Cheney Tells Congressional Committee He's Not "Within The Executive Branch"

This is so absurd I don't know how to react: laugh out loud or slam my head against the wall.

Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information:
The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

2 comments:

sonobono said...

IMPEACH THE BASTARD.
KUCINICH ALREADY HAS A BILL ON THE TABLE.
THE SOONER, THE BETTER.
THEN HE CAN FACE A WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL AT THE HAGUE.
FOLLOWED BY BUSH AND RUMSFIELD AND GONZALEZ AND RICE AND POWELL AND ABRAMS, ETC, ETAL.

The Unknown Candidate said...

Yeah, right, if they could find a way to bottle "balls" and inject it into Congress, we might have a chance in hell of impeaching the bastards.

The most frustrating thing of all is Congress's unwillingness to act and hold these criminals accountable -- which makes those elected officials almost equally criminal in my eyes.