Cheney is quite literally risking the security of classified documents

The Washington Post reports the latest on Cheney's refusal to obey the rules governing the safekeeping of classified documents:

Vice President 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 yesterday.

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.

I had a high level security clearance when I was on the Hill, beyond Top Secret, so I'm familiar with how serious the government is about the security of classified documents and information. What Cheney is doing isn't some esoteric battle over protocol. He's refusing to let the national security watchdogs make sure that his staff isn't being sloppy with classified information. He is quite literally risking our national secrets during a time of war. These rules exist for a reason, the oversight exists for a reason. People are sloppy, and sometimes they're even evil. When you're dealing with classified information, information that can quite literally get someone killed, you need several layers of protection to ensure that the information doesn't slip out, by intent or neglect. That's why we have inspections of offices and individuals who receive and retain classified information, to make sure that their sloppiness (or worse, duplicity) isn't putting our nation, and our troops, at risk.

That's what this issue is about. It's about protecting our national security secrets during war time. For some reason, Dick Cheney doesn't think his staff needs to be as careful with our national security secrets, with the national security secrets of our allies, as do other officials in the federal government. That's an incredibly dangerous and reckless decision that puts at risk the classified information itself, the sources of that information, and every one of us who rely on America's, and our allies', intelligence apparatus to keep us safe.

CREW has more.