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Originally postED: May 26, 2006
Cheney's secret classifications
Posted by Mark Silva at 2 pm CDT
The government slowed down somewhat last year in the classification of top
secret and confidential information, and it also declassified slightly more
documents than had been opened up the year before.
But the numbers still rank among record-leveLS: With 14 million decisions
made last year to classify information, a slight decline from the 2004
record, and 29.5 million pages declassified last year -- far fewer than the
100 million pages declassified in 2001. And once again, Vice President Dick
Cheney, who has refused to report on his office's classification activities
since 2003, is missing from the count.
Despite an executive order signed by President Bush in 2003 requiring all
agencies or “any other entity within the executive branch that comes into
the possession of classified information’’ to report on its activities, the
vice president’s office maintains that it has no legal obligation to report
on its classification decisions.
Cheney’s office told the Chicago Tribune in an April report on the
administration’s propensity for secrecy that it is under no duty to report
this information. The vice president maintains that his office is not an
agency, and is also unique in serving both an executive role and legislative
role - the vice president is president of the Senate.
But monitors of government secrecy maintain that the vice president is
flouting his own president’s authority in this matter.
“It undermines oversight of the classification system and reveals a disdain
for presidential authority,’’ Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on
Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said today.
“It’s part of a larger picture of disrespect that this vice president has
shown for the norms of oversight and accountability.’’
A spokeswoman for Cheney, asked for response, reiterated the vice
president’s stance on the issue.
“These reporting requirements are not applicable to (the office of the vice
president),’’ Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said today. “This has been
thoroughly reviewed and it’s been determined that the reporting requirement
does not apply to (the office), which has both legislative and executive
functions.’’
Since the beginning of Bush’s presidency, agencies and other entities each
year had reported increasing numbers of decisions to classify information as
top secret, secret or confidential. These numbers rose from 8.65 million
classification decisions reported in 2001 to 15.65 million in 2004, a record
number.
Last year, agencies made 14.2 million decisions - a 9 percent decrease from
the record-level reported in 2004, and slightly less than what had been
reported in 2003 - according to a new report of the National Archives
Information Security Oversight Office.
Agencies also declassified 29.5 million pages of documents in 2005, the
report shows. This marked a 4 percent increase from the 28 million pages of
documents declassified the year before.
This represents a turnaround from the annual scaling back of documents
declassified during Bush’s presidency - with 100 million pages declassified
in 2001 and 44 million declassified in 2002.
Combined, the National Archives office that monitors these decisions calls
last year’s increases in declassification and decreases in classification “a
positive step.’’
“It’s incrementally good news,’’ Aftergood said. “The numbers are down from
record-high levels to second record-high levels… It’s hard to get excited
about that, but it’s better than increases.’’
With some 80 agencies and other entities taking part in the National
Archives’ annual accounting of activity, the report notes that only the
Office of the Vice President, the president’s Homeland Security Council and
the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board failed to report on its
activities. The vice president’s office last reported on its activities in
2002, the agency says.
In the past, the Archives report notes, the vice president’s activities
“historically have not reported quantitatively significant’’ numbers. But
Aftergood suggests there is no way of knowing what the vice president has
done since 2002 because he isn’t reporting.
“The reality is that until 2002, they did report,’’ he said. “Somebody made
a decision that they don’t want to do what they used to do… They have to
explain why they stopped doing it, and they haven’t done that.’’
*****************************************************************************
*******************************
Haditha is Just the Tip of the Iceberg, As My Lai Was in Vietnam
Alas, the massacre at Haditha -- in which women, children and men -- were
executed by U.S. Marines will be the My Lai for Iraq.
That means war hawks will argue that the Marines were under intense pressure
-- which they were -- and these "sort of things" are to be expected in war.
They will excuse the horrific actions as an inevitable outgrowth of a war
without rules.
And they are right, you know.
Not that these GIs should be excused from accountability, but the real
people who should be tried and sentenced are Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush and Rice
They, like Kissinger, Nixon and Johnson, put the Marines in this modern
version of Dante's inferno for reasons that defy logic and honesty.
With Vietnam, My Lai was a real event that became a symbolic battle over
whether U.S. soldiers should be held accountable for atrocities. They should
but, more importantly, the people who put them in an untenable position
should be legally charged for war crimes -- and for misleading the men and
women of the U.S. armed forces and the American people.
My Lai was only the tip of the iceberg in Vietnam. It was one atrocity among
many, but it was the one where the soldiers got caught.
We have reviewed and recommended the painful, powerful 1971 documentary,
Winter Soldier" (just released on DVD and made available to the viewing
public for the first time in decades) , because it details how commonplace
the outright murder, torture and rape of Vietnamse was by American military
personnel. It was very simple to hide these murders. Any Vietnamese who
ended up dead was identified as a member of the Viet Cong, whether they were
or not.
The "Winter Soldier" film website notES: "In February 1971, one month after
the revelations of the My Lai massacre, an astonishing public inquiry into
war crimes committed by American forces in Vietnam was held at a Howard
Johnson motel in Detroit. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War organized
this event called the Winter Soldier Investigation. More than 125 veterans
spoke of atrocities they had witnessed and committed.
"Though the event was attended by press and television news crews, almost
nothing was reported to the American public. Yet, this unprecedented forum
marked a turning point in the anti-war movement. It was a pivotal moment in
the lives of young vets from around the country who participated, including
the young John Kerry [although his appearance is just a brief visual image].
..Their courage in testifying, their desire to prevent further atrocities
and to regain their own humanity, provide a dramatic intensity that makes
seeing Winter Soldier an unforgettable experience."
This is a raw, searing film that rubs salt on an open wound. It is
profoundly moving, sad and a powerful indictment of those who lead us into
conflicts that are cul-de-sacs of horror.
And it offers a comparative window that opens our minds to the macabre
realities of what the U.S. military is doing in Iraq.
Despite Bush's tiresome and dishonest lofty rhetoric of contrived patriotism
and ironically phony words of his love of freedom, the reality on the ground
in Iraq is seen in the indiscriminate torture and killings carried out by U
S. troops or their Iraqi militia proxies. Abu Ghraib, Falluja, Sadr City,
RamaDI: These are just a few locations where "everyone was a Muj (insurgent)
" just as in Vietnam, every civilian was a Viet Cong sympathizer, once they
were dead.
Drilled holes in the head of a 12-year-old child who was then shot to death.
Babies "executed." Detainees tortured with dogs, electroshock and drownings.
Massive bombardments of the civilian population. The detonation of mosques.
No, Haditha was not an isolated incident. The Pentagon tried to cover it up
for months, according to Congressman John Murtha.
The war crimes committed everyday in Iraq run up to the desk of George W.
Bush.
Yes, BuzzFlash does honor our troops this Memorial Day.
They deserve better, much better, than the failed and criminal leadership
that sent them to a war that they could never win. Now, they are just there
as sitting ducks because the Bush Administration doesn't want to "lose face"
or appear "unmanly" by bringing these soldiers home to safety.
Bush said that their mission was accomplished several years ago.
Then, what are they still doing in Iraq?
And why is George W. Bush -- a man who has done great harm to our military,
put our soldiers in harm's way for a fool's dream, and authorized crimes
against humanity -- still in office and not in a docket?
Think about this question when you are horrified by Haditha.
Haditha was not an aberration. It is the rule of conduct in Iraq, not the
exception, as was the case in Vietnam.
The responsibility for Haditha and all the other inhumane crimes in Iraq
begins with Bush and Cheney and work their way down.
Remember our troops in Iraq this Memorial Day.
They deserve to be home, now.
They should not be the foot soldiers -- dutifully following orders -- of a
megalomanic, lying, incompetent, evil cabal.
They, do indeed, deserve better.
Giant U.S. Embassy project dismays Iraqis
Battles of World War II are long past, but a dwindling group of black tank
soldiers proudly recalls its place in history
Turns out it's Dick Cheney's office that's deciding for Bush what laws he
gets to ignore, intercepting all incoming legislation
"F.U.B.A.R.: America's Right-Wing Nightmare" (Hardcover), By Sam Seder,
Stephen Sherrill
Saving America from the Treason of Scooter LibBY: The Libby Defense Fund.com
Thorpe
Learning Love is Loving God - - Loving Truth is Learning God
thorpe55.tripod.com
Posted by Thorpe
at 11:44 AM EDT
