Posted on 05/14/2009 9:29:01 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Obama Administration to Cheney: Request Denied
The Obama administration has turned down former Vice President Dick Cheney’s request for the declassification of two CIA reports on the effectiveness of the Agency’s detainee program, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned. A letter dated May 7, 2009, from the CIA’s Information and Privacy Coordinator, Delores M. Nelson, rejected Cheney’s request because the documents he has requested are involved in a Freedom of Information Act court battle.
“In researching the information in question, we have discovered that it is currently the subject of pending FOIA litigation (Bloche v. Department of Defense, Amnesty International v. Central Intelligence Agency). Therefore, the document is excluded from Mandatory Declassification Review,” Nelson wrote in the letter to the National Archives, the agency responsible for handling Cheney’s request.
The rejection of Cheney’s request will almost certainly intensify the public back-and-forth between the former vice president and the current administration. The contentious debate over enhanced interrogation exploded on April 16, when Obama authorized the release of four memos on interrogation prepared by the Bush Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. In a statement accompanying the release, Obama pointed to “exceptional circumstances” surrounding the memos that required their declassification and release. Four days later, in an interview on Fox News, Cheney revealed that he had requested the declassification of two memos that demonstrate that the techniques were effective.
White House officials have told reporters and members of Congress that the Cheney memos do not bolster the case for enhanced interrogation, as Cheney has suggested. But they have nonetheless refused to release them. President Obama has the legal authority to declassify the documents “with the wave of his hand,” according to one expert.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
I’m shocked! Shocked I tell you!...
I am shocked to find out the Obama administration does not want to release information that would be favorable to the Bush administration.
When a Rat says there is no smoke, there has to be fire.
The request denial was a given.
So much for transparency.
Of course there is, Mr. Cheney knows exactly what those reports say or he wouldn’t have asked to have them released.
Obama was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t when the request was made, Mr. Cheney is playing this administration like a fiddle right now.
The LAST thing the black racist thugocracy of the Obama administration want released is the TRUTH.
They are no different from a bunch of illiterate bozos complaining over EVERYTHING their oppositions has done - but totally incapable of improving upon ANYTHING....
They are not unlike a bunch of monkeys who threw their feces on the White House and now must live within the mess they created...
Then the Obama administration broke the law by releasing their side of the debate. They were also subject to this legal contest.
wow, must have been a close vote...
That’s what’s great about the former Veep and these FOIA requests...
He KNOWS WHAT’S THERE.
That’s what handicaps most people - they don’t know what to ask for.
Yes, he knows what’s there, and so does George W. Bush. Bush is laying low for now. But methinks before this Obamadrama has played itself out, Bush will be back on the stage, and not entirely to boos and hisses.
I can tell you it will MOST certainly intensify the already low respect for 0 and more eyes are opening.
However, their strategy of doing everything as fast as they can before we wake up enough is coming true.
V.P. Cheney should now seek to be added to the Amnesty International suit.
and press for faster disclosure.
Reminds me of something else they won't release:
White House officials have told reporters and members of Congress that the release of a true copy of Pres__ent 0's birth certificate does not bolster the case that he's constitutionally unqualified to be president, as many have suggested. But they have nonetheless refused to release it.
Because someone asked to see it, the administration doesn’t have to decide if anyone can see it?!? WTH?
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