February 17, 2006

"...Classification Authority.

    (a) The authority to classify information originally may be

         exercised only by:

        (1) The President and, in the performance of executive

             duties, the Vice President

        (2) agency heads and officials designated by the

             President in the Federal Register...

 

  ...(2) ' Top Secret ' original classification authority may be

          delegated only by the President; in the performance

          of executive duties, the Vice President, or an agency

          head or official designated....

     (3)  ' Secret ' or ' Confidential ' original classification authority

          may be delegated only by the President; in the

          performance of executive duties, the Vice President;

          or an agency head or official designated...

 

   ...' Original classification authority ' means an individual

       authorized in writing, either by the President, the Vice

       President in the performance of executive duties, or by

       agency heads or other officials designated by the

       President..."

 

                - Excerpts from Executive Order 13292, as issued

                  by President George W. Bush on March 23, 2003

                  and as cited by Byron York in a column of

                  February 16, 2006

 

 

   "...3. On May 6, 2003, the New York Times published a column

    by Nicholas Kristof which disputed the accuracy of the 'sixteen

    words' in the State of the Union address. The column reported

    that, following a request from the Vice President's office for an

    investigation of allegations that Iraq sought to buy uranium

    from Niger, an unnamed former ambassador was sent on a

    trip to Niger in 2002 to investigate the allegations. According

    to the column, the ambassador reported back to the CIA and

    State Department in early 2002 that the allegations were

    unequivocally wrong and based on forged documents...

 

 

    ...9. On or about June 12, 2003, Libby was advised by the

     Vice President of the United States that Wilson's wife worked

     at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation

     Division. Libby understood that the Vice President had

     learned this information from the CIA.

  

      10. On June 12, 2003, the Washington Post published an

     article by reporter Walter Pincus about Wilson's trip to

     Niger, which described Wilson as a retired ambassador but

     not by name, and reported that the CIA had sent him to

     Niger after an aide to the Vice President raised questions

     about purported Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium. Pincus'

     article questioned the accuracy of the ' sixteen words ',

     and stated that the retired ambassador had reported to the

     CIA that the uranium purchase story was false...

 

...12. On or about June 19, 2003, an article appeared in the

    New Republic magazine online entitled ' The First Casualty:

    The Selling of the Iraq War.' Among other things, the article

     questioned the ' sixteen words ' and stated that following a

     request for information from the Vice President, the CIA

     had asked an unnamed ambassador to travel to Niger

     to investigate allegations that Iraq had sought uranium

     from Niger. The article included a quotation attributed to

     the unnamed ambassador alleging that administration

     officials ' knew the Niger story was a flat-out lie. '  The

     article also was critical of how the administration,

     including the Office of the Vice President, portrayed

     intelligence concerning Iraqi capabilities with regard to

     weapons of mass destruction, and accused the

     administration of suppressing dissent from the intelligence

     from the intelligence agencies on this topic.

 

  13. Shortly after publication of the article in the New Republic,

     Libby spoke by telephone with his then Principal Deputy

     and discussed the article. That official asked Libby

     whether information about Wilson's trip could be shared

     with the press to rebut the allegations that the Vice

     President had sent Wilson. Libby responded that there

     would be complications at the CIA in disclosing that

     information publicly, and that he could not discuss the

     matter on a non-secure telephone line.

 

 14. On or about June 23, 2003, Libby met with New York

     Times reporter Judith Miller. During this meeting,

     Libby  was critical of the CIA, and disparaged what

     he termed ' selective leaking ' by the CIA concerning

     intelligence matters. In discussing the CIA's handling

     of Wilson's trip to Niger, Libby informed her that Wilson's

     wife might work at a bureau of the CIA.

 

                    The July 6 " Op Ed " Article by Wilson

 

  15.  On July 6, 2003, the New York Times published an

    Op-Ed article by Wilson entitled ' What I Didn't Find in

    Africa.'   Also on July 6,  2003, the Washington Post

    published an article about Wilson's 2002 trip to Niger,

    which article based in part upon an interview of Wilson.

    Also on July 6, Wilson appeared as a guest on the

    television interview show ' Meet The Press. '  In his

    Op-Ed article and interviews in print and on television,

    Wilson asserted, among other things, that he had

    taken a trip to Niger at the request of the CIA in

    February 2002 to investigate allegations that Iraq

    had sought or obtained uranium yellowcake from

    Niger, and that he doubted Iraq had obtained

    uranium from Niger recently, for a number of reasons.

    Wilson stated he believed, based on his understanding

    of government procedures, that the Office of the

    Vice President was advised of the results of his trip..."

 

                    - Excerpts from the Indictment in the case

                      U.S. v I. Lewis Libby, Case # 05-394,

                      filed on October 28, 2005

 

 

To All,

     It may just be that "Scooter" Libby can make a better case for being "authorized" to selectively disseminate the "de-classification" of Valerie Plame's status at Langley than Joe Wilson can make in having the authority to reveal classified information of his trip to Niger to 4 different media sources:

 

Read 'Em and Weep:

     Byron York reported yesterday at NationalReview.com with  some clarification of a statement made by Vice President Dick Cheney in a recent interview with Fox News' Brit Hume.

 

     York noted that the authority for the Vice President's declaration (that the Vice President has the power to declassify various secret and confidential classifications) comes from Executive Order # 13292, which is a modification of the Clinton Era EO # 12958 ("...Stroke of a pen, law of the land. Cool!....").

 

     The issue of declassification authority may become instrumental in US v. Libby since Libby can establish that he was authorized to "set the record straight" with select members of the Legacy Media. This was potentially due to the need to rebut the one-sided commentary of former Ambassador Joe Wilson (Ron Fournier wrote an article for the AP wire yesterday noting that Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald has acknowledged that Libby was authorized by superiors to speak to the media about the CIA "leak" case.).

 

     For those who are following the attempts of said Legacy Media and the Move-on.org types to discredit the Bush Administration enough to justify impeachment over the conduct of the war in Iraq, Wilson's commentary in the close aftermath of the fall of Baghdad was for a while the primary effort by the Not-So-Loyal Opposition to "step all over" what was otherwise a significant victory of American arms.

 

     But in doing so, Wilson (who campaigned for John Kerry in 2004) apparently revealed possibly classified information that was part of the "take" from his brief trip to Niger in early 2002 ( Note: Special Counsel Fitzgerald seems to note that the CIA took it upon itself to send Wilson. It was later disclosed that Valerie Plame advocated Wilson's selection for the trip in the first place.).

 

     While not yet known to be under review by Special Counsel Fitzgerald, Wilson's revelation of information that could be confidential may itself be a case for prosecution.

 

     To likewise enjoy the same kind of protection from any future prosecution, Wilson would have to establish that he got a "green light" from someone listed with that authority in the CIA that is named in the Federal Register(It is easily assumed that neither President Bush, nor Vice President Cheney, authorized Joe Wilson to disseminate his classified verbal report to the media).

 

     Of additional import in the Libby case is that the details of Executive Order 13292 come at a moment when new information is hitting the wires lending proof to the contention that Saddam knew he had active WMD plans in place, including a deception plan designed to "fool" UN inspectors (One can only wonder who set up the bugs on those meetings.).

 

     Add to that the claims by former Iraqi Air Force Georges Sada (Saddam allegedly transported some WMD's on board converted passenger jet liners to Syria, for safekeeping), an alleged lack of interest by the CIA to investigate weapons storage bunkers in Southern Iraq for chemical weapons, and anecdotal claims (still pending confirmation) that US troops over-ran Iraqi artillery batteries with not-yet-assembled chemical munitions in the first days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and one gets the whiff of an impression that the CIA had not been on it's toes in the critical years of 2000 through 2003.

 

     Now, it may seem to the Loony Left that this turn of events might just be a "Michael Corleone" moment in that roughest of contact sports, Beltway politics. But when correctly viewed, this is simply a continuation of the same kind of "Texas Hold ' Em" that the Administration has been successful with since 2001. This last turn of the cards, that of a change in declassification authority just in the nick of time to battle hostiles buried within the foreign policy bureaucracy, speaks to a comprehension of the ways of insider politics that the White House Press Corps has so far failed to give credit for. Who would have "thunk" that the Beltway Elite could have been taken to the cleaners by some Good 'Ole Boys and Gals from the Lone Star State? Well, as long as these Elites play the same old way, they will exhaust their resources in the same old way. And if this continues, the probability of the current firearms rights-friendly Congress and Administration staying in office remains good. Stay tuned.

 

 

Links at:

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200602160841.asp

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_cia_leak

http://www.nysun.com/article/26514

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_the_other_scandal_2;_ylt=
AspknrOD9_6dgCgIPqmDx69qP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=5933

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/2/16/90042.shtml?s=lh

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007981

 

 

Riddikulus! Update:

     David Kravets reports for the Associated Press that Attorney General Bill Lockyer has decided to hire an anesthesiologist to oversee the execution of Michael Morales next Tuesday.

 

     As previously noted, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel had ruled that California's three drug cocktail could be ruled cruel and unusual if it could not be established that the condemned was unconscious prior to receiving injections of pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

 

     While there has been much to have been in disagreement with AG Lockyer in the past, it is clear that the decision to hire an anesthesiologist in the Morales case is the correct one. While undue suffering is not expected with the current method, having objective medical evidence to establish this for the public record will settle the latest controversy in a definitive manner. Attorney General Bill Lockyer is to be commended for his actions.

 

Link at:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3662930.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-morales16feb16,0,1949969.
story?coll=la-headlines-california

 

 

Oh Canada! Update:

     Dan Dugas reported at the National Post (Internet version) that the newly-elected Conservative government has formed a committee to "...figure out how best to kill the long-gun registry as soon as possible...".

 

      The three-person committee consists of 2 cabinet ministers and firearms registry critic Garry Breikreuz (MP-Saskatchewan).

 

      Details to be worked out include the funneling of funds previously earmarked for the registry into more effective public safety spending. This may include some sort of backround check, though details are still pending.

 

     If Prime Minister Stephen Harper can get this one done quickly, an important promise made to the Western Provinces will have been kept. Given the importance of hunting in the rural parts of Canada, such action can not come too soon.

 

Link at:

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=f9489afc
-9b85-4cdc-8ec9-8f64807c56bb&k=71988

 

 

 

Respectfully,

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA

 

Copyright 2006 Anthony Canales

All rights reserved.