Cheney balks at rules on classified data

Not gonna comment except to say this is the equivalent of reporting a cat chased a mouse. Pure nature of the beast.

For the past four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has made the controversial claim that his office is not fully part of the Bush administration in order to exempt it from a presidential order regulating how federal agencies handle classified national-security information, officials said Thursday.

Cheney contends that his office is not fully part of the executive branch of government because, under the Constitution, the vice president also serves as president of the Senate.

Cheney has held to that position despite the continued objections of the U.S. National Archives, which says his office's failure to demonstrate that it has proper security safeguards in place could jeopardize the government's top secrets.

(read more)