- The arcane details of national security classification
policy became the stuff of late night comedy as White House officials struggled
to justify the peculiar refusal of Vice President Dick Cheney to comply
with the oversight requirements established by President Bush's executive
order on classification.
-
- For two successive days, the White House press briefing
was dominated by incredulous reporters who wondered how the Vice President
could claim that he both was and was not part of the executive branch;
why he complied with oversight reporting requirements in 2001 and 2002,
and why he then ceased to comply; and how the Vice President's behavior
can be consistent with the executive order when the Administration's own
Information Security Oversight Office says that it is not.
-
- "I'm not a legal scholar," said an exasperated
Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman. "I'm not opining on his
argument that his office is making."
-
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2007/06/wh062507.html
-
- The story became certifiably big news last night when
it was the subject of a five minute satirical segment on The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart (where I had a microsecond cameo). See "Non-Executive
Decision," June 25, 2007, under "most recent videos":
-
- http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml
-
- The Justice Department had said that the classification
policy dispute was "under review" since Information Security
Oversight Office director J. William Leonard asked the Attorney General
in January 2007 to resolve the matter. But in response to a Freedom of
Information Act request, the Justice Department revealed that no documents
whatsoever had been generated by the purported review.
-
- See "A New Cheney-Gonzales Mystery" by Michael
Isikoff, Newsweek, July 2:
-
- <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19391241/site/newsweek/>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19391241/site/newsweek/
-
- Congressional leaders are stirring the pot, warning that
the Office of Vice President could suffer budget penalties if it does not
comply with routine oversight procedures. See "Secrecy May Cost Cheney,
Dems Warn" by Elana Schor and Mike Soraghan, The Hill, June 26:
-
- http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/secrecy-may-cost-cheney-dems-warn-2007-06-26.html
-
- To recap: The internal executive branch conflict over
the Vice President's non-compliance with the executive order was triggered
by a formal complaint filed with the Information Security Oversight Office
in May 2006 by the Federation of American Scientists (following a report
in the Chicago Tribune by Mike Silva).
-
- The FAS complaint was accepted by ISOO Director William
Leonard, and was forwarded to the Attorney General in January with his
request for an official interpretation of the executive order. There the
matter lay for five months until Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of
the House Oversight Committee, raised the issue to stratospheric heights
last week with a letter to the Vice President questioning his Office's
conduct.
-
- The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio devoted
an hour to the topic yesterday with Congressman Waxman, Peter Baker of
the Washington Post, former Justice Department lawyer David Rivkin, and
myself. See "The Executive Branch and Classified Information,"
June 25:
-
- http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/07/06/25.php
-
- The controversy is playing out against the backdrop of
a massive four-part series in the Washington Post on Vice President Cheney's
role and conduct written by Barton Gellman and Jo Becker. The story had
been under development for many months and Ms. Becker has since left the
Post to go work for the New York Times. In a weird and probably unprecedented
coincidence, she had a byline in front page stories in both the Washington
Post and the New York Times on June 25.
-
- SELECTED CRS REPORTS
-
- Some recent reports from the Congressional Research Service
that have not been made readily available in the public domain include
the following.
-
- "Long-Range Ballistic Missile Defense in Europe,"
June 22, 2007:
-
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL34051.pdf
-
- "Foreign Science and Engineering Presence in U.S.
Institutions and the Labor Force," updated June 21, 2007:
-
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/97-746.pdf
-
- "Russian Political, Economic, and Security Issues
and U.S. Interests," updated May 31, 2007:
-
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33407.pdf
-
- "The Use of Federal Troops for Disaster Assistance:
Legal Issues," updated April 24, 2007:
-
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22266.pdf
-
- "The Department of Defense Rules for Military Commissions:
Analysis of Procedural Rules and Comparison with Proposed Legislation and
the Uniform Code of Military Justice," updated September 25, 2006:
-
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL31600.pdf
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