Comments on: Cheney Refused to Release the Journalists

By: timr

timr — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:41:36 +0000

you don’t really understand the relationship. Scooter agreed to throw himself on his sword in order to protect Cheney. This agreement extends for as long as Cheney wants it to. Scooter sees himself as protecting a great person. One of the “governing class”

By: Citizen92

Citizen92 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:03:30 +0000

Extensive use of the word “agency” in that section. Recall that the Fourth Branch OVP claims it is not an “agency.”

And why does Dick consider himself the “tie breaking vote” in classification disputes among Agencies. That strikes me as odd.

By: MadDog

MadDog — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:33:12 +0000

Excellent points, and in particular, that redacted, but apparently “Cheney-declassified” material.

Note that the material Cheney claims he declassified (pages 25-26) is marked with the FOIA exemptions b2 and b5, and those exemptions are:

(b)(2) EXEMPTION 2 Internal Personnel Rules and Practices. This exemption exempts from mandatory disclosure records “related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency.” Courts have interpreted the exemption to encompass two distinct categories of information:

(a) internal matters of a relatively trivial nature–sometimes referred to as “low2″ information; and

(b) more substantial internal matters, the disclosure of which would risk circumvention of a legal requirement–sometimes referred to as “high 2″ information.

And:

(b)(5) EXEMPTION 5 Privileged Interagency or Intra-Agency Memoranda or Letters. This exemption protects “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums of letters which would not be available by law to a party …in litigation with the agency.” As such, it has been construed to “exempt those documents, and only those documents, normally privileged in the civil discovery context.”

If declassified, by Cheney or anyone else, to what purpose if the material is then hidden by claims of FOIA exemptions?

By: cinnamonape

cinnamonape — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:43:54 +0000

Interesting the fact that Fitz was wondering whether it was Cheney who provided Eric Edelman and Neil Patel with Plame’s identity…”I don’t recall”.

Also why is the example that Cheney used where he actually DID declassify material redacted? Wouldn’t that item be “declassified” and the fact that Cheney was the legitimate “declassifier” part of the public record? Also how could he be unaware that the NIE declassification was opposed by the CIA? Isn’t the procedure that the original classifying authorities are informed about a pending declassification and given opportunity to challenge? It seems that this declassification, and the specifity to particular sections, now was clearly “fast-tracked” by Cheney.

By: Cynthia Kouril

Cynthia Kouril — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:52:51 +0000

OK can someone tell me why the FBI redacted out the part of each page that says it is a form302?

FD 302 is the form that agents use to type up a “report of interview”.

Why is the form # a secret? oh yeah, it’s not.

Chuckling and shaking my head

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:21:39 +0000

OK – I get lost in all the swirl of the FOIAs outstanding on where their response status is. I’d tend to think that there would have been some communication follow up from the SPec Pros office or the FBI on the point, though. Asking “hey, are we going to get those waivers now that we’ve asked for them” etc. Is there just and emptiness on that front?

By: earlofhuntingdon

earlofhuntingdon — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:02:37 +0000

It is astounding. Among other things that Cheney could not do without an adequate security clearance is review his own work papers, including whatever was/is in his man-sized safe. (I wonder if that’s a Billy Crystal size or Arnold Schwarzenegger size.) That would preclude him from organizing them, as he is entitled to do for a short period, or from using them to refresh his recollection in writing his memoirs. The papers themselves are the property of the people of the United States, not Cheney (or Bush) personally.

By: Cellar47

Cellar47 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:12 +0000

THIS IS WHY PROMISES OF CONFIENTIALITY MUST NEVER BE GRANTED TO ANYONE!

By: OldFatGuy

OldFatGuy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:57:43 +0000

Damn I wish this no good, downright evil, motherfucker was behind bars once and for all. I don’t care if it’s only one goddamned day and his heart crokes, this bastard deserves a set of bars as window ornaments like no other U.S. politician in history.

By: perris

perris — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:53:07 +0000

onteresting, over at the news desk there’s this;

LATER LATER UPDATE: I’ll probably have more on this tomorrow, but this was a train wreck of a Friday news dump: WH visitor logs and Cheney FBI tapes drop, and the Afghan runoff is off?

marcy, I think you’ll have a field day with that and your timelines but I fear you will get no sleep this weekend