Cheney won't tell how much he keeps secret!!

[AGENDA21]

WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration has dramatically accelerated the classification of information as "top secret" or "confidential," one office is refusing to report on its annual activity in classifying documents: the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents. More than 80 agencies have collectively reported to the National Archives that they made 15.6 million decisions in 2004 to classify information, nearly double the number in 2001, but Cheney insists he is exempt.

Explaining why the vice president has withheld even a tally of his office's secrecy when offices such as the National Security Council routinely report theirs, a spokeswoman said Cheney is "not under any duty" to provide it.

That is only one way the Bush administration, from its opening weeks in 2001, has asserted control over information. By keeping secret so many directives and actions, the administration has precluded the public — and often Congress — from knowing about some of the most significant decisions and acts of the White House.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002962226_cheney30.html

[Flubadubya]

1. Duh, ugh!

I'm not remarking on your post... just commenting on the behavior of the Bushies, particularly Cheney the Devil. :evilfrown:

Anyone that obsessed with keeping their actions as an official public servant in such absolute secrecy cannot be up to any good... au contraire!

[Olney Blue]

2. The last sentence is chilling:

"Anyone who calls or writes a government agency for information encounters barriers that were just not there a decade ago," he said. "The government is undergoing a mutation in which we are gradually shifting into another kind of government in which executive authority is supreme and significantly unchecked."


Thanks for the post, AGENDA.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Bush & Cheney: As bad as they wanna be.