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Cheney's vice-like grip
Bush has granted his deputy the greatest expansion of powers in
American history
By Sidney Blumenthal
02/24/06 "The
Guardian" -- -- After shooting Harry Whittington,
Dick Cheney's immediate impulse was to control the intelligence.
Rather than call the president directly, he ordered an aide to
inform the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, that there
had been an accident - but not that Cheney was its cause. Then
surrogates attacked the victim for not steering clear of Cheney
when he was firing without looking. The vice-president tried to
defuse the furore by giving an interview to friendly Fox News.
His most revealing answer came in response to a question about
something other than the hunting accident. Cheney was asked
about court papers filed by his former chief of staff Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice
in the inquiry into the leaking of the identity of the
undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. In the papers, Libby laid
out a line of defence that he leaked classified material at the
behest of "his superiors" (to wit, Cheney). Libby said he was
authorised to disclose to members of the press classified
sections of the prewar National Intelligence Estimate on Saddam
Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, Cheney explained,
he has the power to declassify intelligence. "There is an
executive order to that effect," he said.
On March 25 2003 President Bush signed executive order 13292, a
hitherto little-known document that grants the greatest
expansion of the power of the vice-president in US history. It
gives the vice-president the same ability to classify
intelligence as the president. By controlling classification,
the vice-president can control intelligence and, through that,
foreign policy. Bush operates on the radical notion of the
"unitary executive", that the presidency has inherent and
limitless powers in his role as commander in chief, above the
system of checks and balances. Never before has any president
diminished and divided his power.
The unprecedented executive order bears the hallmarks of
Cheney's former counsel and current chief of staff, David
Addington, the most powerful aide within the White House.
Addington has been the closest assistant to Cheney through three
decades. Inside the executive branch, Addington acts as Cheney's
vicar, inspiring fear and obedience. Few documents of concern to
the vice-president, even executive orders, reach the president
without passing through Addington's hands.
To advance their scenario for the Iraq war, Cheney and co either
pressured or dismissed the intelligence community when it
presented contrary analysis.
On domestic spying conducted without legal approval of the
foreign-intelligence surveillance court, Addington and his
minions crushed dissent from James Comey, deputy attorney
general, and Jack Goldsmith, head of the justice department's
office of legal counsel.
On torture policy, as reported by the New Yorker this week,
Alberto Mora, recently retired as general counsel to the US
navy, opposed Bush's abrogation of the Geneva conventions.
Addington et al told him the policies were being ended, while
pursuing them on a separate track.
The first US vice-president, John Adams, called his position
"the most insignificant office ever the invention of man
contrived or his imagination conceived". When Cheney was defence
secretary, he reprimanded Vice-President Dan Quayle for
asserting power he did not possess by calling a meeting of the
National Security Council when the elder President Bush was
abroad.
Since the coup d'etat of executive order 13292, the
vice-presidency has been transformed. Perhaps, for a blinding
moment, Cheney imagined he might classify his shooting party as
top secret.
Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton,
is the author of The Clinton Wars - sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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