Comic Relief
Feb 16th, 2006 at 6:53 pm by Susie
As you may have read elsewhere, Cheney claimed in his Fox interview he has the power to declassify information. Hmmm…. not so fast. I see that he has classification authority (surprising in itself, and the probable Scooter Libby defense), but so far haven’t found anything that indicates the ability to de-classify.
I have to say, though, I really got a hearty chuckle out of this part of the executive order he cited:
Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations. (a) In no case shall information be classified in order to:
(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
(2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency;
(3) restrain competition; or
(4) prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.
“I really got a hearty chuckle …”
That’s your fey euphemism for “I screamed till the cops came” or something, right?
But since it’s all classified, they can get away with anything…