[Dialogue] Cheney Lawyer Claims Congress Has No Authority Over Vice-President

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 by The
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/29/dickcheney.usa>  Guardian/UK 

Cheney Lawyer Claims Congress Has No Authority Over Vice-President

by Elana Schor

The lawyer for US vice-president Dick Cheney claimed today that the Congress
lacks any authority to examine his behaviour on the job.
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-content/photos/0429_01_1.jpg>
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-content/photos/0429_01_1.jpg> 0429
01 1 <http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-content/photos/0429_01_1.jpg> 

The exception claimed by Cheney's counsel came in response to requests from
congressional Democrats that David Addington, the vice-president's chief of
staff, testify about his involvement in the approval of interrogation
tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.

Ruling out voluntary cooperation by Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn
Wheelbarger said Cheney's conduct is "not within the [congressional]
committee's power of inquiry".

"Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by law what a
vice-president communicates in the performance of the vice president's
official duties, or what a vice president recommends that a president
communicate," Wheelbarger wrote to senior aides on Capitol Hill.

The exception claimed by Cheney's office recalls his attempt last year to
evade rules for classified documents by deeming the vice-president's office
a hybrid branch of government - both executive and legislative.

The Democratic congressman who is investigating the legal framework for the
violent interrogation of terrorist suspects, John Conyers, has asked
Addington and several other top Bush administration lawyers to testify. Thus
far all have claimed their deliberations are privileged.

However, Philippe Sands QC, law professor at University College, London, has
agreed to appear in Washington and discuss the revelations in Torture Team,
his new book on the consequences of the brutal tactics used at Guantanamo.

Excerpts from Torture Team were previewed exclusively by the Guardian
earlier this month.

Two witnesses sought by Conyers, former US attorney general John Ashcroft
and former US justice department lawyer John Yoo, claimed that their
involvement in civil lawsuits related to harsh interrogations allows them to
avoid appearing before Congress.

In letters to attorneys representing Ashcroft and Yoo, Conyers shot down
their arguments and indicated he would pursue subpoenas if their clients did
not testify at his May 6 hearing.

"I am aware of no basis for the remarkable claim that pending civil
litigation somehow immunises an individual from testifying before Congress,"
Conyers wrote.

Conyers, who chairs the House of Representatives judiciary committee, also
questioned the reasoning of Cheney's lawyer in a letter to Addington.

"It is hard to know what aspect of the invitation [to you] has given rise to
concern that the committee might seek to regulate the vice president's
recommendations to the president," Conyers wrote.

"Especially since far more obvious potential subjects of legislation are
plentiful," he added, mentioning several: US laws on the use of torture on
terrorist suspects, the 15-year-old War Crimes Act, and the rules that
allowed the Bush White House to receive legal advice from a specialised
office within the justice department.

C 2008 The Guardian

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org 

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/29/8585/

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080430/74bc7442/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 6731 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080430/74bc7442/attachment-0001.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 30052 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080430/74bc7442/attachment-0001.jpe