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| The Radical Moderate |
| Covering: Big Brother, Propaganda, Theocracy and Liberty By Tim Willoughby, Y.A.W.L. * (* Yet Another Wretched Lawyer) |
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Libertarian DemocratA Libertarian Democrat is vigorously pro-personal liberty, and believes government can play a constructive role in regulating our economy and providing a social safety net. Categories:
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On Tuesday, VP Cheney mentioned to Fox’s Brit Hume that he had the power to declassify information due to an Executive Order. The National Review Online dug into the Executive Order issue a little. See this NRO article for details of the evolution of the VP’s new authority to declassify information. I wonder: Which came first, the VP’s alleged leaks of some alleged classifed info to embarrass people (such as Joe Wilson), or the authority to declassy such info? In other words, did the Executive Order come into existence to protect the VP by legalizing the VPs (prior or planned) conduct, or did the authority come first - and then the VP used his new authority for political purposes? The use of governmental power for distasteful political purposes is nothing new, happens all the time. [UPDATE —- On Feb 16, 2006, FoxNews analyst Judge Andrew Napolitono explained that the identity of agents, such as Valerie Plame, is a type of secret established by law, and is NOT subject to being declassified by either the president or the vice-president under this Exec Order] The mere existence of this new VP power isn’t particularly troubling to me, though, in theory. Agency heads have had the same power for ages. The VP should be at least as powerful as an agency head, we would think. This VP in particular has taken on a much larger role than any previous VP I can recall, and has acted much more like we would expect the second-in-command to act. [Thanks to Lenny for the tip about the NRO artilce]
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February 18th, 2006 at 7:38 am
Plame Leak timeline - From dKosopedia
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Plame_Leak_timeline
February 18th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
The Executive Order occurred in March 2003 I think. According to the timeline the Plame Outing occurred June 2003.
So even if the VP revealed Plame’s identity, he could claim that he “declassified” Plame’s identity through his actions.
The VP’s assistant Scooter Libby is under indictment, but not for revealing Plame’s identity - he’s under indictment for perjury, for lying about his knowledge of the events.
Libby’s and Cheney’s stories don’t match. It would be nice to get to the bottom of the outing. If Cheney did it, he should fess up, absorb the embarrassment, and let’s move on. Apparently, Cheney doesn’t have to worry about criminal prosecution, because the E.O. protects him.
If it was a dirty political trick, sacrificing the undercover identity of a CIA agent to punish a critic, let’s admit it and then talk about Iran.