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VP’s Power to Classify and Declassify Information Under Scrutiny

Follow-up to yesterday’s posting, Declassifying Gov. Docs. For Libby Defense, today Steven Aftergood provides a detailed analysis of the powers of the President and Vice President, respectively, in declassifying national security information. As Steven explains, Executive Order 13292, issued by President Bush, contains language that “dramatically elevates the Vice President’s classification authority to that of the President…” However, Aftergood notes that the VP’s authority to declassify documents atuhored by other executive branch agency heads (such as CIA) is not necessarily clear. Please refer to his posting for more details.

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