WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney disclosed Wednesday that he has the power to declassify sensitive government information, authority that could set up a criminal defense for his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Cheney's disclosure comes a week after reports that Libby testified under oath he was authorized by superiors in 2003 to disclose highly sensitive prewar information to reporters. The information, about Iraq and alleged weapons of mass destruction, was used by the Bush administration to bolster its case for invading Iraq.
When Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed Libby's assertions to a grand jury that he had been authorized by his superiors to spread sensitive information, the prosecutor did not specify which superiors.
But in an interview on Fox News Channel, Cheney said there is an executive order that gives the vice president, along with the president, the authority to declassify information.
"I have certainly advocated declassification. I have participated in declassification decisions," Cheney said. Asked for details, he said, "I don't want to get into that. There's an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously it focuses first and foremost on the president, but also includes the vice president."
Cheney had the authority to declassify information through executive order? Does that mean that Cheney had the authority to disclose Valerie Plame's covert identity as a CIA officer? Or did he just give himself that authority through the executive order? Vice President Dick Cheney declassifying information--the same Dick Cheney who claimed executive privilege for refusing to divulge the names on his energy task force meeting?
I will say, I do find it interesting that this now reported, just after Scooter Libby is claiming that he was following orders from his superiors on disclosing classified information--and now Cheney is claiming he had the authority to declassify information.
What the frack?
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