- The big story this week is the outrageous assertion by
the Vice President that his office is exempt from the authority of the
National Archives, (part of the executive branch, controlling classified
documents) because he claims to be part of the legislative branch. In contrast,
when the legislative branch demanded to know this year the details about
the Vice President's staff as part of their oversight duties to determine
funding for his office (to the tune of $4,432,000) Cheney refused to reveal
how many people he has on his staff or their names, claiming "Executive
privilege." So which is it? Apparently for the VP, he wants it both
ways, depending on the situation.
-
- Scott Horton, of Harpers.com says Cheney's attitude is
in complete opposition to the founders' view of American government: "Nothing
is quite so revealing of the tyrannical attitudes of Dick Cheney as his
views on secrecy. Put simply, for Cheney, the public office holder, everything
he does must be kept secret from the people. But on the other hand, the
ordinary people are entitled to no secrets from him: he can engage in unwarranted
wiretapping and surveillance to his heart's content...the Vice President
thinks he is above the law."
-
- Elizabeth Sullivan, foreign affairs correspondent for
the Cleveland Plain Dealer reviewed Cheney's history of shielding his activities
from public scrutiny: "Dick Cheney joined the legislative ranks only
recently. Back in 2001, when Cheney secretly talked energy policy with
oil company CEOs, he was a privileged member of the executive branch --
as he later argued to the courts. [His Energy task force records were sealed.]
-
- "By 2003, the vice president was keeping his manipulations
of pre-Iraq war intelligence quiet by using his chief aide, Lewis 'Scooter'
Libby, as his front guy. Now that Libby's probably going to jail because
of it, the vice president can't even be bothered to write a letter of testimonial.
-
- "Lately, Vice President Cheney has been surfing
the waves of government secrecy once again - this time as a member of the
legislative branch. At least, that's the excuse Cheney's office is using
to avoid complying with an executive-branch order intended to safeguard
classified material. For every year since 2003, Cheney has failed to disclose
the exact amount and nature of intelligence his office has made secret
- or declassified [as required by National Archive rules]. Not so coincidentally,
that's the very time frame covered by the Libby investigation.
-
- "... According to Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of
California, who made the blow-up public last week, as tenaciously as the
National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office has pressed for
vice presidential compliance, Cheney's office retaliated just as forcefully.
The vice president is trying to get the archives oversight office abolished.
-
- "... The National Archives appealed to the attorney
general's office but, unsurprisingly, has yet to hear back from Alberto
Gonzales. Meanwhile, Cheney's office is trying to close off such an avenue
for appeals even as Cheney seeks to have the executive order amended to
exempt his documents. [The VP is claiming the EO is aimed only at federal
"agencies" and he is not an agency.]
-
- "At least the National Archives is finally showing
some teeth over document security. It needed to, after the Sandy Berger
debacle. In the case of President Clinton's former national security adviser,
Berger walked away with little more than a slap on the wrist after repeated,
egregious violations of secrecy pledges and rules in his handling of top-secret
documents at the archives. In 2002 and 2003, Berger was preparing to testify
to the 9/11 commission. Not only did he purloin top-secret documents and
notes from the archives, he later could not account for their whereabouts.
Even worse, because the archives had not tagged or chronicled all of the
documents Berger reviewed, its staff was unable to say for sure just what
had been lost or destroyed. The inability to reconstruct the exact nature
of the security breach was why Berger got off so easy, via a plea agreement
that brought him only a fine and probation. [That's not the only reason
he got off easy. He's a deep insider with unofficial "immunity."
The proof of that is that Berger was out of office when did his little
theft of embarrassing material (to Clinton) from the Archives. It would
be one thing to claim some immunity for someone actively serving the president,
but Berger was supposedly only a private citizen. Obviously, he was still
working undercover for government.]
-
- Cheney has good reason to wrap his office in official
secrecy. This is the command center of the entire Bush administration.
The Vice President is the President's "handler." Nothing of importance
gets to Bush without Cheney's office vetting it. It's not an absolute rule,
but it is what most White House staffers come to acknowledge by experience.
It wasn't always this way. If VP Dan Quayle, a mere figurehead during the
first Bush administration, had ever attempted to dictate or influence policy,
federal officials would have laughed at him--to his face. At a minimum,
they would have gone running to Bush's chief of Staff to complain.
-
- No so now. Bush policy often originates within the Cheney
staff. He has his own National Security liaison plus liaison officers for
the State Department, and other federal agencies. This is a Vice Present
that obviously has his fingers in every pie. Washington Post writers Barton
Gellman and Jo Becker did a 4-part series of articles this month on Cheney's
unofficial power. While this is only a superficial view, explained away
by the nuances of Washington power politics, it is symptomatic of much
more that goes on unseen and unreported by the media.
-
- "As President Gerald R. Ford's chief of staff in
the 1970s, Cheney saw firsthand how White House policies got shaped --
and how a vice president such as Nelson Rockefeller could become so marginalized
as to be dumped from the ticket... ' John O. Marsh, jr. a longtime Cheney
friend, said in an interview. 'He holds the view, as do I, that the vice
president should be the chief of staff in effect, that everything should
run through his office.'" [no one every suggested that when Dan Quayle
(a non-insider) or even Al Gore (an insider) were VPs]
-
- "... When Bush tapped Cheney to be his running mate
seven years ago, he chose a man who had put a great deal of thought into
how a vice president can transform himself from a funeral-trotting figurehead
into a center of real power. [Actually, it was Cheney who tapped himself
to be Vice President. He was in charge of the VP selection committee and
selected himself!]
-
- "The vice president chairs a budget review board,
a panel the Bush administration created to set spending priorities and
serve as arbiter when Cabinet members appeal decisions by White House budget
officials. The White House has portrayed the board as a device to keep
Bush from wasting time on petty disagreements, but previous administrations
have seldom seen Cabinet-level disputes in that light. Cheney's leadership
of the panel gives him direct and indirect power over the federal budget
-- and over those who must live within it.
-
- "It is well known that Cheney is usually the last
to speak to the president before Bush makes a decision. Less so is his
role, to a degree unmatched by his predecessors, in steering debate by
weighing in at the lower-level meetings where proposals are born and die.
Cheney, [John] Bolten said, is a vocal participant at a weekly luncheon
meeting of Bush's economic team, which gathers without the president. As
the most senior official in the room, Cheney receives great deference from
Bush's advisers.
-
- "... Wise officials vet their proposals in advance
[to the VP-a sign that everyone "knows" who really runs the show].
White House budget director Rob Portman, for instance, sought Cheney's
counsel as he was putting together the budget for the upcoming year, using
him as a 'sounding board' on issues as varied as defense spending and tax
reform. He never, ever has said to me, 'Do this.' Never [but, he has said
that to others]. Which is interesting, because that might be the perception
of how he operates,' Portman said. 'But it is 'What do you think of this?'
Well, he's the vice president of the United States -- and obviously I'm
interested in his point of view.' [No one would have said that about Dan
Quayle, who tried desperately to have influence.] Perhaps more important
than Cheney's influence in pushing policies is his power to stop them before
they reach the Oval Office." He does that often too. Cheney is everywhere
an important decision is being made."
-
- What's more important is trying to get below the surface
and see Cheney manipulating the pressure that provides the muscle for getting
things done. Part of the muscle is money, provided by lavish bribes and
secret deals such as the BAE scandal that has broken out in the UK and
which is now being connected to Cheney and the Carlyle group back home.
-
- As background, In 1985, the British government under
Maggie Thatcher signed a secret deal with Saudi Arabia in which BAE Systems
(a major British arms contractor) would provide fighter jets and other
military equipment to Saudi Arabia in exchange for an undisclosed amount
of oil at a bargain rate. The US has a similar secret agreement. Part of
the agreements are public and parts of deal (bribes and compensation) are
secret.
-
- The oil was resold at market rates and there was also
a huge multi-million dollar under-the-table payoff to US Saudi ambassador
Prince Bandar for brokering the deal. The oil was distributed and resold
by a consortium of big oil giants (BP, Royal Dutch Shell) which netted
an extra $80-100 billion in slush funds that would go on to fund British
secret operations around the world. This money was laundered through various
international banks connected to the CIA and MI6: Lazard Bank, HSBC (Hong
Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), BCCI and the globalist Carlyle
Group from the US. All this went on without public knowledge. There were
similar agreements between the Saudis and the US, which have not been outed
yet. The PTB are doing their best to keep the lid on these secret oil deals
that sustain their slush funds.
-
- According to one European source, part of the purpose
of Cheney's recent emergency visit to Saudi Arabia was to assure the Saudis
that he would keep a lid on the growing revelations about the Bandar payoff
and the secret oil agreements. In Britain, a probe was initiated by the
Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Cheney is reported to have had secret conversations
with Chancelor of the Exchequer (and now Prime Minister) Gordon Brown after
his return from Riyadh. Brown agreed to put pressure on UK Attorney General,
Lord Goldsmith, to ensure that the BAE investigation would be shut down
for "National Security" reasons. And so it was done.
-
- CHENEY AND 9/11: But nothing is more emblematic of the
Vice President's power than the fact that Cheney was running the government
during the 9/11 crisis from the underground command post under the White
House. It is also very telling that the 9/11 Commission went to great lengths
to falsify testimony that placed Cheney in the "Situation Room"
after the attack on the Pentagon, when in fact, he was there from the beginning.
-
- The crucial testimony on this issue came from former
Transportation Sec. Norman Mineta, who was angry that his statements to
the Commission about Cheney's role in the Situation Room were purposely
omitted from the final report. Aaron Dykes of the Jones Report says that
Mineta accepted a telephone interview with members of the 9/11 Truth (Seattle)
group to clarify and confirm his testimony before the 9/11 Commission report.
-
- "Mineta says Vice President Cheney was 'absolutely'
already there when he arrived at approximately 9:25 a.m. in the PEOC (Presidential
Emergency Operations Center) bunker on the morning of 9/11. Mineta seemed
shocked to learn that the 9/11 Commission Report claimed Cheney had not
arrived there until 9:58-- after the Pentagon had been hit, a report that
Mineta definitively contradicted.
-
- "Norman Mineta revealed that Lynn Cheney was also
in the PEOC bunker already at the time of his arrival, along with a number
of other staff [again, more evidence that his staff has knowledge of the
secret agendas played out through the Vice President's office]. Mineta
is on video testifying before the 9/11 Commission, though omitted in their
final report. He told Lee Hamilton: 'During the time that the airplane
was coming into the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and
say to the Vice President the plane is 50 miles out. the plane is 30 miles
out..and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles out, the young man also
said to the vice president 'do the orders still stand?' And the Vice President
turned and whipped his neck around and said 'Of course the orders still
stand, have you heard anything to the contrary!?"
-
- "Norman Mineta made it clear to reporters... that
Mineta was indeed talking about a stand down order not to shoot down order
for hijacked aircraft headed for the Pentagon. After no shoot down took
place, it became clear that Cheney intended to keep NORAD fighter jets
from responding-- evidence that Cheney is guilty of treason, not negligence
for allowing the Pentagon to be hit."
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- World Affairs Brief
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- Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World
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- Copyright Joel Skousen
-
- Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source
as Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief
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- http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com
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