So about the declassifying of information...

Update: Here's an interesting article from the Washington Post which talks about this issue.

Thanks to Don over at Tusk and Talon, I found an article by Byron York which explains the Executive Order Bush signed which gives the Vice President the authority to classify information. The article highlights the important parts, but I also found the whole thing here if you're interested.

What's interesting is how much detail they go into how things become automatically declassified (10 or 25 years later depending on the material) while there are practically zero words spent talking about how an individual could declassify something. I could not find any a specific mention of the criteria a President or Vice President should use when declassifying material. In fact, there's only this sentence which seems to indicate a VP could declassify information, but that depends on a liberal interpretation of the word "delegate".

(2) "Top Secret" original classification authority may be delegated only by the President; in the performance of executive duties, the Vice President; or an agency head or official designated pursuant to paragraph (a)(2) of this section.

Dictionary.com's definition of "delegate" doesn't seem to fit this sentence in any way.

tr.v. del·e·gat·ed, del·e·gat·ing, del·e·gates (-gt)

1) To authorize and send (another person) as one's representative.
2) To commit or entrust to another: delegate a task to a subordinate.
3) (Law.) To appoint (one's debtor) as a debtor to one's creditor in place of oneself.

I assume they mean "changed" or "determined", but it's far from clear.

Then there's also that vague phrase:

"in the performance of executive duties"

I tried my hardest to figure out what exactly the "executive duties" of the vice president are, but darn if I couldn't come up with anything. His legislative duty is to preside over the Senate, but there doesn't seem to be a description of his executive duties anywhere except to take over if the President is incapacitated or dies. The vague wording only adds to the problems with this Executive Order.

The biggest problem, however, is the lack of any checks to this authority. We need checks because otherwise the President or Vice President might use this power to advance a political agenda, which appears to be what happened in the case of Valerie Plame.