  |
 |
| |
|
|
|
 Cheney Says He Has Power to Declassify InfoPosted on Feb 16, 2006WASHINGTON—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. Truthdig says: Apparently both he and President Bush have this power, but the VP was mum on details. The disclosure, in his interview with Fox News, could lay the groundwork for a criminal defense of his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby. Read the full text of his interview here. Previous item: Anti-American Cleric Rising as Iraqi Kingmaker Next item: Committee Head Wary of Arab Control Over U.S. Ports Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment |
|
The Dream Campaign Goes to Berlin
Email
Print
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Ma.gnolia
Newsvine
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo
Jump to Comments
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
By xsociate23, February 16, 2006 at 10:28 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I was rather curious about this ‘authority’ that Cheney was claiming to have too. So I googled and sure enough, there is an Executive Order (#13292) that does seem to give Cheney the authority.
Not surprisingly, this new EO was an amendment to an earlier one and now gave Cheney authority to ‘declassify’ info. The timing of the amendment has me wondering as well. It came right before Libby leaked WMD info to the press.
Seems like someone was thinking ahead.
Report this