Cheney (or Bush) cannot "declassify" the ID of a covert CIA agent.

Covert CIA agents identities are not classified by executive order, they are classified because of a statute which prohibits revelaing the information.

So, what does this mean?

It means this "defense" that Libby was following the orders of Cheney in outing Plame, and Cheney, under the Bush Executive Order, had the authority to "declassify" things, is worthless, even accepting the statements about Cheney's authority at true.

Cheney's authority to "declassify" things is irrelevant to the Plame situation, and it seems noone has picked that up yet.

Its irrelevant because the identities of covert CIA operatives are not secret because they are classified under the executive authority to classify things. The identity of a covert CIA operative is secret because there is a federal statute ptohibiting the release oif the information. The executive authority to classify and declassify does not come into play. The executive authority to declassify can only declassify what the executive authority has classified. It cannot overrule a statute which establishes something as classified.

In fact, Cheney, in claiming he was authorized to "declassify" Plame's identity, may have admitted to violating the statute. A criminal offense.

The two orders seemed to me to limit the sort of materials Cheney could declassify to things which the Administration he served in had classified.

Did Cheney actually say 'I outed Plame because I can' out loud? 'Cause otherwise he didn't admit anything except being able to do so, in his mind.

"Dana Priest: Lots of questions on this one so I turned to my classification guru, Steve Aftergood, at the Federation of American Scientists. Answer: 1) The VP can declassify anything that his office classified or generated initially. 2) The VP can declassify other executive branch information only if the president has given him implicit or explicit authority to do so, which is not self-evident in Executive Order 13292 of 3/25/03 3) Not even the president can declassify everything. . . . For more, go to www.fas.org/blog/secrecy . A great site. So, the bottom line is, we'll probably have to get the president to answer whether he delegated this to the VP, and/or if the information in question was generated from the VP's office."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

I think how they really fuck up our security by outing this agent and her agency.....

And they're using this hitherto obscure theory on governence to justify everything they're doing, even before a court review. That's the beauty of it, in their minds...they trump the courts, too, therefore than can simply do what they want and no one can stop them. Want a court review? Cheney says "Fuck you! I got your SCOTUS right here, and it's already on its way to being irrevocably stacked in my favor! BWHAHAHAHA!"

I believe it was the runt's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, who as Vice President and not long before that CIA Director championed the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act. GHWB went further to say that anyone who would reveal the identities of the Plames of the world is commiting treason. So, absolutely, Plame was protected not be an executive order, but by legislation that could only be altered by court or subsequent law, not by the whim of a President or Vice President.

Cheney is busted!! The sharks smell blood and will eat their own!

if there were a tape of Bush Sr. giving the "treason" comment.

cspan one(tv) now. US v Nixon, dean says Cheney can't do this. This is live now.

classified October 2002 CIA National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). Libby testified that this "superiors" (Cheney (and Bush?)) authorized him to release details of the NIE to Judy Miller ten days before the CIA declassified that document. Declassification Procedures are established by Executive Order (EO). See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/16/12759/5214

That's potentially a separate charge from allegations that Libby conspired with others to out Plame - that's a statutory crime under the Intelligence Agent's Identities Protection Act of 1982.

I am not a lawyer, but my guess is that Fitz will back down -- just as the Congress did when Gonzo said prove that he does not have to be accountable to Congress, concerning Wiretapping.

They hung men in Nuremburg that tried to defend themselves by saying they were only doing their duty mandated by their superiors! Better cut yourself a deal, Lib, and rat out the rats!!

Even if he can declassify information in a document, I would think someone's classified status as a CIA operative is more than a fact on a paper.

classification of Plame. Fitzgerald is looking to show a pattern of leaks in the WH - of classified information (not Plame) when the WH wanted to bolster its' case for war.

Shows the context of the Libby leak.

I don't think this is about anything else. But the investigation of Plame and the context & habits of the WH in leaking classifyed information - when it suited them politically.