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Cheney's office balks at order on secret data

The executive branch must say how classified information is handled. His office declines.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by a congressional committee Thursday.

Since 2003, the vice president's staff has not cooperated with an office at the National Archives and Records Administration charged with making sure the executive branch protects classified information. Cheney aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and at one point blocked an inspection of their office. After the archives office pressed the matter, the documents say, Cheney's staff this year proposed eliminating it.

The dispute centers on a relatively obscure process but underscores a wider struggle waged in the last 61/2 years over Cheney's penchant for secrecy. Since becoming vice president, Cheney has fought attempts to peer into the inner workings of his office, shielding an array of information such as the industry executives who advised his energy task force, details about his privately funded travel and Secret Service logs showing who visits his official residence.

The aggressive efforts to protect the operations of his staff have usually pitted Cheney against lawmakers, interest groups or media organizations. But the fight about classified information regulation indicates that he has resisted oversight even by other parts of the Bush administration. Cheney's office argued that it is exempt from the rules in this case because it is not strictly an executive agency. In addition to serving as vice president, Cheney is president of the Senate, adding a legislative component, his office says.

"He's saying he's above the law, " said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which released a series of correspondence Thursday outlining the situation.

Cheney's office declined to discuss what it called internal matters. "We are confident that we are conducting the office properly under the law, " said spokeswoman Megan McGinn.

The Justice Department confirmed Thursday that it is looking into the issue. "This matter is currently under review, " said spokesman Erik Ablin.

The standoff stems from an executive order establishing a uniform system for safeguarding classified information. The order was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and was updated and reissued by President Bush in 2003. Under the order, an "entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" must report annually how much is kept secret.

Cheney's office filed annual reports in 2001 and 2002.

[Last modified June 21, 2007, 22:52:11]