Information is power

The most interesting piece of information that has come out of the whole Cheney hunting story is that Cheney claims that he has the authority to declassify information. Apparently, this claim is based on Executive Order 13292. I’m no lawyer, and maybe I’m just dense, but it’s not obvious to me how this order gives Cheney the authority he’s claiming.

Certainly, the order gives the Vice President the authority to classify information, but I wouldn’t think that authority to classify information would necessarily include the authority to declassify it. You’d think if you were going to the trouble of issuing an Executive Order (to amend the previous Clinton-era EO concerning classified material), you’d be more explicit about the authority of the VP. The order is quite explicit about classifying information, though there is that phrase about “in the performance of executive duties,” which is included with almost every reference to the Vice President, and is never defined.

One thing is crystal clear: Cheney understands that knowledge is power. The main effect noticed from EO 13292 was that it increased the ability to classify information. This administration has made use of the power to classify information heavily; it is as if the default state of information is classified. No doubt Cheney would prefer that all information be classified, including his location. If you classify everything, and take upon yourself the authority to decide where and when and to whom to release little tidbits of information, you’ve got the power to steer the public discourse.

Especially if you don’t mind lying, and Cheney likes lying almost as much as he likes being secretive. He’s continually made claims that simply aren’t true, long after those claims have been thoroughly discredited. I’m surprised he didn’t manage to work in references to the ties between Iraq and al Qaeda in his interview with Brit Hume.

The hunting incident just demonstrates his modus operandi. Hide the story as long as possible, let dribs and drabs come out eventually, and lie about the details as long as you can get away with it. The only step remaining is smearing anybody who can discredit the lies. That step probably won’t be necessary, as the hunting party was full of good little Republicans, but were Whittington to say anything that counters the VP’s story, I guarantee you that we’d start hearing that Whittington was secretly a liberal who had ties to Saddam Hussein.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

….or maybe somebody else’s.

Back when I was a freshman in college, one quarter I took a class in rifle marksmanship to satisfy a PE requirement for my degree. For a variety of reasons, I signed up for the class offered through the ROTC department rather than the class offered through the PE department. Rifle marksmanship was actually sort of a big deal on campus; there was a rifle team, which had won several NCAA championships.

That quarter represents the sum total of my experience with guns. I had never shot a gun of any kind before, and have never since. In the words of the Army sergeant who taught the class, I became a “paper killer” for that one quarter, and by the end of the quarter, had qualified as an Army marksman.

There are only two things I really remember from the class, and the first leads to the second. The first day we actually went to the range and shot our rifles for the first time, I accidentally shot the ceiling. Fortunately, it was only the ceiling, but I was careless with the rifle and had my finger on the trigger when trying to adjust my position. Hence, the second thing I remembered, drilled into me by that Army sergeant: I was responsible at all times for my rifle and where it was pointing and what it was pointing at.

So, the attempts to place the blame on Mr. Whittington for getting in the way of Vice President Cheney’s shotgun blast don’t work for me. No matter what proper hunting etiquette says, and I’ll admit to being no authority on that topic, the fact remains: if you have a gun in your hands, you are responsible at all times for it.