The Law According to Dick Cheney

This post, written by Steven Reynolds, originally appeared on the All Spin Zone

This sort of secrecy on Dick Cheney's part is to be expected by now. He wants to reside in an undisclosed location and make sure that all of his papers are undisclosed as well. The Presidential order establishes procedures for safeguarding classified national security information, but Cheney didn't even answer when the National Archives informed him of their role in this process. Get this -- Cheney claims his office is not a part of the Executive Branch.

Well, the National Archive wrote a letter to Alberto Gonzales about this violation of the law. It appears Gonzles has snubbed the National Archives as well, and that he's failed to uphold the law. Again, that's unsurprising.

Cheney's records do need protecting. Wired sums his record up nicely:

Cheney's office has a history of selective secrecy and shoddy information security practices, such as unilateral and selective declassifying of documents to suit political purposes and fighting a government sunshine request for energy task force records up to the Supreme Court. Cheney's top aide is facing 30 months in federal prison for lying to investigators about which Administration official outed an undercover CIA operative whose work focused on fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The showdown over the executive branch-wide regulations on how to classify, store, handle, and declassify government documents started sometime in 2003, when Cheney's office refused to submit an annual report on its classification procedures, despite the fact that the order was signed by President Bush.