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Originally posted by EagleUSA:

"In this case, a "leak" relates to CLASSIFIED information. It has not been clarified as to whether the information was still classified when the leak happened or not. Declassification does have to take place BEFORE information can be released. I listened to a reporter hit McClellan with this exact question, and he was stumbling all over himself trying not to answer the question. I am afraid that Bush and buddies may have been caught on this one -- they sure are avoiding a plausible explanation to date...we continue to await their response." .
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"You might want to familiarize yourself with Bush's own executive order relative to the PROCESSES that are to be followed for the declassification of classified information. As you read and learn you will not find anything that says the President is authorized to unilaterally disclose classified information, making it automatically unclassified, or anything similar. Again there are procedures to be followed and again, my question simply was, were they followed or not? Very objective and not biased. Just keeping it real. No one has yet to show any evidence or rules to the contrary. For your reading enjoyment and enlightenment." .
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"You are trying way too hard. Where does it say it does not? The order applies to ALL that handle classified information, and initiate the classification or declassification processes. And it was drafted and executed by Bush and his administration. It simply demonstrates there are procedures to be followed." .
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"Exactly. And if Bush, Cheney or whomever, applied the proper processes to declassify that information, then it was done appropriately. If not, then the opposite applies. That is the essence of the original question, not some attempt to hang Bush. For some reason, Bush or his assigns will NOT answer that question which is not a good position to take and gives the criminal MSM every opportunity to raise serious doubt."

You seem to be playing the obtuse card when it comes to Presidential Executive authority. President Bush has no "buddies" when it comes to exercising his authority. They all work for him... The Federal Constitution gives all Executive authority to the President of the United States. Period. There is no higher executive authority to which the President must answer. Period. All document classification happens at the behest of the President, or to those to whom he delegates such part of his authority as he sees fit. He retains the final authority - not subject to any "rules or regulations" in any fashion. Executive orders do NOT bind the President of the United States, nor can executive orders of a previous President bind the sitting President - any more than could one Congress bind a future Congress (without the use of the Amendment process) to its rulings.

If the President of the United States wished to de-classify and publish the plans to the W-88 nuclear warhead he would be within his authority to do so - no matter its harm to the security interests of the United States. No authority on earth could prevent him for doing so, no regulation - no rule. The only recourse that the Congress of the United States would have at that point is the "power of the purse" to punish the Executive Branch by with-holding funds or to pursue an impeachment strategy. No matter what course of action would be taken by the Congress - they would be after the fact and could not prevent the act itself. Such is the sole power of the Executive Branch.

Any subordinate who gains authority under the Executive Branch gains such authority by its delegation from Head of the Executive Branch. Any procedures which must be followed by such a subordinate is because he acts under authority, not in his own right. The President of the United States is under no such authority - because when it comes to the Executive Branch - he is the SOLE authority as delineated by the Federal Constitution. Unlike the Congress and the Courts where power and authority is dispersed, the power of the Executive is concentrated in ONE person - the President of the United States and he alone exercises and defines such power subject only to the restraint of the other two Branches of the Federal government.

To give lie to your "declassification authority" thesis in which President Bush has violated his own executive orders I give you President Clinton... One of my next door neighbors here in Northern Virginia is a career lawyer for the Justice Department of the United States. He is the head of the Office of the Pardon Attorney of the Justice Department. This Office was instituted to perform the research and provide guidelines, procedures and legal recommendations to the President of the United States in support of his use of the pardon power granted him by the Federal Constitution. When the last days of the Clinton Administration arrived, President Clinton followed none of the legal procedures, rules and regulations for granting pardons which were set in place at the Justice Department when he granted convicted fugitive Marc Rich his pardon. My neighbor was doing some yard-work about six weeks later when I asked him about the Marc Rich pardon - he said that the pardon granted by President Clinton did not go through the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department - it came directly from the President. I asked why the President did not go through the procedures and regulations of his Justice Department. This career lawyer just shrugged his shoulders and said "he doesn't have to - he's the President".

End of case.

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