Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
I don't buy into your allegation that "it's all politics", Bucco. The current flap and media reports may be politics, but the initial design of the program and it's concealment by the Vice President was definitely NOT politics. It was conduct by one branch of government that bordered on, if not crossed the line of illegality.
Forgetting whether the program concealed by Vice President Cheney was ever initiated or not--I don't know at this point. Does anyone think that this type of conduct on the part of the executive branch was what the framers of the Constitution had in mind for the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of government?
Somehow, I think not.
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I think yes. There's a big difference between
concealment and
no requirement to report. The term
concealment, absent a formal indictment, is strictly political in nature.
There is a distinct separation of powers between the Executive and the Congress. Just as the Executive has no right to demand any congressperson to disclose any/all their dealings (domestic or international) with anyone, or advise the Executive of any Congressonal investigation or plan of action, the reverse is also true. I don't see this as any different, provided no law was broken.
All Departments and independent Agencies within the Executive have a myriad of contingency plans on-the-shelf or in development. Congress never gets involved in the planning of any potential Executive action - again, it's a separation of powers issue. Congress only gets involved if: 1) current statutes or the Constitution require specific reporting to Congress on the planning of an action (and those reports are very specific as to format and content, and very rare); 2) new legislation is necessary to effect a plan; and/or 3) the plan's development needs additional funding only available from Congress.
The number of classified plans (and operations) within all the Departments and Agencies is quite extensive. They are all of varying classification and accessibility (or they wouldn't remain secret!) It's also extremely doubtful any one person anywhere knows about all of them. Also, it's quite logical that a new CIA director - especially one who is an intelligence business neophyte - won't learn about everything (including contingency plans development) ongoing in this world-wide and multi-tasked agency during an entire administration term - the volume of information is that large.