Gonzales role in Cheney oversight dodge probed Michael Roston

Published: Wednesday June 27, 2007 Print This Email This The role of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in Vice President Dick Cheney's efforts to escape scrutiny for his office's dealings with classified information is being probed by a pair of House committees. "An Executive Order signed by President Bush in 2003 directs the National Archives to oversee a uniform, government-wide system for protecting national security information. For six months, the National Archives has sought unsuccessfully to receive clarification from the attorney general regarding the OVP's contention that it is exempt from the order because it is not an entity within the executive branch of our government," notes a press release sent to RAW STORY by the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In the letter, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the Oversight Committee, John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and William Lacy Clay (D-GA), who chairs the Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, complain that the Attorney General's office has created confusion about the current state of the review of the Vice President's actions. "Due to conflicting statements from your department, the status of your review of this matter is unclear...the Information Security Oversight Office has received no response to its inquiry. In response to a FOIA request [by the Federation of American Scientists], the department's Office of Legal Counsel stated on June 4,2007, that no documents exist relating to your department's response to Mr. Leonard's letter...Last week, however, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice stated that this matter is under review in the department." Rep. Conyers (D-MI) warned in the statement that, "Once again, we appear to have an attorney general who is too close to the White House for his own - or the people's - good." The letter transmits a set of questions to which the committees seek answers, requesting follow up by July 12. The full letter can be downloaded at this link.



