Does The Vice President Have The Authority To Declassify Information?
The question is asked in the comments by our good friend J.A., our good friend Gwedd says yes, and our good friend Jacques says no. The Wall Street Journal looked at this question yesterday:
Mr. Cheney, in his role as second-in-command of the country, has significant leeway, albeit not as much as the president, to declassify information. The information I. Lewis Libby, the chief of staff, said he was authorized by his superiors to discuss with reporters was the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate titled “Iraq’s Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
…”The president can declassify anything,” William Banks, a Syracuse University law professor and expert on national-security law, said. While the president would have to amend his own executive order governing secrets in order to declassify something on the fly, that can be accomplished very informally, even orally and in secret. “He could do it on a cocktail napkin,” Mr. Banks said.
The vice president’s authority to declassify is less clear. Some legal scholars believe that Mr. Cheney would share in the president’s authority, as an elected official. Alternatively, the president could delegate his declassification authority to the vice president.
“The classification system is rooted for the most part not in statute but in executive order. …In the case of the NIE, the White House was free to declassify it at a moment’s notice,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, which favors increased public access to government information.
…The implication from the disclosure that Mr. Libby had authority to discuss sensitive intelligence matters with the press “is that the White House — the vice president — has been using his declassification authority as a way to advance the administration’s political agenda,” said Mr. Aftergood. “In other words, information that supports the administration’s position on Iraq or whatever is selectively declassified and other information is not. That’s not a criminal offense, but it’s kind of sleazy.”
Probably legal but sleazy – print up the campaign posters, we have a winner!
As always, links and discussion to the contrary are welcome…
Comrades,
Like I said below, the VP :MAY” have that authority, and could prabably be, if needed, delegated that authority, to declassify documents. The President most certainly does. It’s an inherant right, similar to his absolute right to pardon individuals without review.
If folks are interested in all this with regard to the Plame case, then one should also keep in mind two points.
1.) Fitzgerald has done an extensive investigation and the only charge handed down was one of perjury.
2.) It’s not at all settled that the VP passed along, or authorized the release of classified information. Plenty of individuals have stated that friends and acquaintences of her new she worked for the CIA. Joe Wilson made a point of saying so. She was also NOT working as an undercover operative at the time. She was just another desk jockey. It could well be that, if Cheney passed along anything at all, (and that is only an accusation made by Libby) it was knowledge that Ms. Plame had used her husband to develop a response to US Presidential interests that she knew would be false and undermine administration interests.
Anyway, most folks I knew back in the day were extremely protective of classified documents and information. Even the suspicion of unauthorised release was grounds for some serious punishment, if not career ending moves or even jail time.
I’m not ready to pounce on the VP and haul him before the mast just yet. Let’s see how things play out with the investigations. However, if he did violate the law, or used some questionable ethical conduct, then he’s on his own in my book. Same as with Agnew, with Nixon’s boyz, and with Duke Cunningham.
I have to say, to, that that last case really ate me up. I idolized Duke, because he was a Navy Ace and a good officer. As a former brown shoe, I looked up to him. But he made a poor choice, and has to own up to it, which, to his credit, he did. He broke my heart with his actions. I’d still buy him a beer at the club, for old time’s sake, but I won’t forget he’s human, either.
respects to all,
Gwedd
Well, Gwedd, I think the point here is not that Cheney authorized Libby to leak Plame’s name – plenty of people suspect that, but that’s not the allegation – it’s that he authorized Libby to leak the NIE information that is alleged in the court documents…
Comrade Mark,
True. I apologize for the verbosity. I may well have missed my calling in the theatre, where it seems that a preclivity towards bloviation is seen as a mark of the professional. Why use one or two sentences when entire paragraphs may be put into play?
Respects to all,
Gwedd
The procedures to be followed in declassifying the NIE are outlined in Section 3 (esp. paragraph 3.5) of Executive Order 13292. In particular, the Originating Agency (the CIA, in this case) must conduct a declassification review.
Now, the point of the WSJ article is that, since the entire Classification system is instituted by Executive Order, it can be changed — theoretically, at will — by the President. So, there’s nothing to prevent the President from having issued a secret Order, permitting Cheney to release the NIE, unreviewed.
(Disclosing the identity of a covert operative was outlawed by Statute, so that’s a different matter.)
Good link, Jacques…I knew we could count on you…
[...] Recently, with the help of our good friend Jacques, we tried to untangle the question of whether Cheney can declassify information (Jacques was good enough to point us to Executive Order 13292, which he stated allowed the Vice President to do so only if secretly authorized by the President). The Vice President appeals to an executive order to claim he does, in fact, have the authorization to declassify: Q Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a Vice President has the authority to declassify information? [...]
Well as the Plame issue goes it doesn’t say that she had to be working undercover at that moment, but that she had to be working in the LAST 5 YEARS as undercover ops (and You can tell Jacques to research that one- Ask any agent if it’s ok to release anybody’s name that they worked with in the last 5-10 years on an operation and they’ll be likely to kick youn in your sack for such stupidity.) Add to that that :what was the reason to release her name?- discrediting Joseph Wilson who was the person who debunked that claim to the agreement of the intelligence agencies. As well as Secretary of State Powell who in 2001 gave a speech in Egypt saying that sanctions were working to disarm the Iraqi regime and that no further action was necessary.
Well as the Plame issue goes it doesn’t say that she had to be working undercover at that moment, but that she had to be working in the LAST 5 YEARS as undercover ops (and You can tell Jacques to research that one- Ask any agent if it’s ok to release anybody’s name that they worked with in the last 5-10 years on an operation and they’ll be likely to kick you in your sack for such stupidity.) Add to that that :what was the reason to release her name?- discrediting Joseph Wilson who was the person who debunked the Uranium claim to the agreement of the intelligence agencies. As well as Secretary of State Powell who in 2001 gave a speech in Egypt saying that sanctions were working to disarm the Iraqi regime and that no further action was necessary. What other cases was she working on at the time? Even the insinuation that she was working on anything related to WMD says alot about the a.) importance of her job b.) the secrecy of her work c.) the damage it could cause if it was known widely. The better way would have been to debate Wilson directly instead of taking a stab at a career agent. Which by the way was a failure as well as they turned out to be right and now who knows the extent of the damage its done to our agency. Tell me- how many other scientists and other agents form other countries are going to want to work with us when we so wantonly release the names of agents in an attempt to score political points? Add that to the lists of agents and former administration officilas who have come out against the way the administration has handled intelligence and the Iraq war plus the ineptitude of their ablility to handle such forseeable disasters and its easy to see why anyone with a smidgen if intelligence would choose to have a lack of faith in our government.
Well as the Plame issue goes it doesn’t say that she had to be working undercover at that moment, but that she had to be working in the LAST 5 YEARS as undercover ops (and You can tell Jacques to research that one- Ask any agent if it’s ok to release anybody’s name that they worked with in the last 5-10 years on an operation and they’ll be likely to kick you in your sack for such stupidity.) Add to that that :what was the reason to release her name?- discrediting Joseph Wilson who was the person who debunked the Uranium claim to the agreement of the intelligence agencies. As well as Secretary of State Powell who in 2001 gave a speech in Egypt saying that sanctions were working to disarm the Iraqi regime and that no further action was necessary. What other cases was she working on at the time? Even the insinuation that she was working on anything related to WMD says alot about the a.) importance of her job b.) the secrecy of her work c.) the damage it could cause if it was known widely. The better way would have been to debate Wilson directly instead of taking a stab at a career agent. Which by the way was a failure as well as they turned out to be right and now who knows the extent of the damage its done to our agency. Tell me- how many other scientists and other agents form other countries are going to want to work with us when we so wantonly release the names of agents in an attempt to score political points? Add that to the lists of agents and former administration officilas who have come out against the way the administration has handled intelligence and the Iraq war plus the ineptitude of their ablility to handle such forseeable disasters (Katrina) and its easy to see why anyone with a smidgen if intelligence would choose to have a lack of faith in our government. Even if you are a hardcore repub. supporter you have to at least give a little thought to how poorly the war was designed, the intelligence was handled, and the politic that was involved. How about wanting the truth instead of just wanting to be right ( no pun intended). Legal or not it was dagerous and wrong.