Has Dick Cheney Outlasted Bill Leonard?

/in /by

Bill Leonard is resigning at the end of the year.

It is with deeply mixed emotions that I inform you I have decided to leave government service at the end of the calendar year.

[snip]

I will miss all the great public servants at the National Archives as I move on to the next phase of my professional life. Nonetheless, I look forward to new opportunities to serve this great nation and the American people.

Leonard, of course, is the guy who took on Dick Cheney’s creative theories about classification and declassification. As Secrecy News notes,

In pursuit of that integrity earlier this year, Mr. Leonard famously challenged the Office of the Vice President, which decided in 2003 that it would no longer submit to longstanding classification oversight procedures.

After the Federation of American Scientists filed a formal complaintconcerning the OVP’s non-compliance, Mr. Leonard urged Cheney aideDavid Addington to reconsider its position. When Addington ignored therequest, Mr. Leonard exercised his authority to raise the issue withthe Attorney General, who is obliged by the executive order onclassification to render an interpretation of the order’s requirements.

Althoughno response from the Attorney General was forthcoming, the episodeturned the Vice President and his unchecked secrecy into an object ofpublic ridicule. (See "Vice President Makes Secrecy Policy a Joke (Literally)," Secrecy News, June 26, 2007).

Mr.Leonard’s unexpected resignation naturally invites speculation that thefriction between him and the Office of Vice President was a factor inhis departure. However, his associates say there is no specificevidence of that.

Perhaps we ought to make a concerted effort to get a ruling on whether Dick is a Fourth Branch before Leonard leaves?

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  4. jodi says:

    Mr Cheney

    sits quietly by his window and watches the autumn leaves fall one by one, and smiles as he realizes he has outlasted them again.

  5. looseheadprop says:

    OMG,

    I think I am going to cry. Bill Leonard was such a hero.

    I wonder where he is going next (professionally)?

    Now yet another federal agency has been gutted and will have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

    Damn, I hope he writes a book about every sordid trick they pulled on him.

    Mr. Leonard, if you see this, please come and visit either here or at firedoglake. You have many many fans and admirers of your intgrity and steadfastness to duty.

    You deserve our sincerest thanks, and we could all learn a lot form you.

  6. looseheadprop says:

    My only hope is that like so many others before him, Mr. Leonard is leaving the admin so he will be free to write a tell all.

    Like Clark, Like O’Neil, like Goldsmithh–I’m leaving out a bunch of people. My bad

  7. prostratedragon says:

    Deeply mixed:

    1. â€Part of me wanted to kick up my heels in the parking lot, but part of me was worried that I’d land on a land mine planted next to my car door.â€

    2. Now there’s a great handle for somebody who needs one.

  8. whitewidow says:

    OT – but did you see Waxman’s letter to Krongard?

    Apparently Krongard’s staff has been threatening employees with retaliation if they testify in committee. But they didn’t take the advice, they went to Waxman instead.

    http://oversight.house.gov/doc…..101631.pdf

  10. Anonymous says:

    â€sits quietly by his window and watches the autumn leaves fall one by one, and smiles as he realizes he has outlasted them again.â€

    Yes. This is about right I suppose. Exactly like Norman Bates’ undead mother; the undead nuclear and tin hearted Cheney sits by the window watching the living hell he hath wrought. All the psychotics stare out their windows with crazed smiles.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Whitewidow – About Krongard; he is not a very stable guy. From the NY Times 9/27/07:

    â€Last year, Krongard sued his son, Kenneth W. Krongard, and his daughter-in-law, Kristin, over a home loan that he said they had defaulted on, the Post reported. Although they repaid the loan, which was $320,000, after the suit was filed, Krongard has demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional interest and penalties as well as legal fees, the newspaper reported.

    In Krongard’s e-mails included in a recent court filing, the Post reported, he berated his son and at one point said in urging a settlement, ’’If you are willing to put your wife and children’s future in jeopardy, that’s your business.’’

  13. shit stain remover says:

    Mr Cheney sits quietly by his window and watches the autumn leaves fall one by one, and smiles as he realizes he has outlasted them again.

    Posted by: jodi | September 28, 2007 at 15:17

    Likewise here i sit, gazing out the window wondering whether your grandmother will outlast your brother in combat, and smile as I realize Mr Cheney will outlast both of them.

  14. Mary says:

    Sad.

    But so far no one has really writtten a tell all book. Just a â€tell all about my side of why I’m a good guy†book. And by the time their big â€revelations†hit, it is all old news and can’t get traction.

  15. … says:

    so is cheney still in a position to to do b lines around whatever he doesn’t like with the classification/declassification requirements?

  16. Anonymous says:

    Some of the bonds forged within the circle of cronies are breaking. It is one thing that gives me some hope for our country.

    If you have information or stories about the activities of Defense Security Service (formerly DIS) and former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense and owner of Sullivan/Haave Associates, Carol Haave, and other related areas in DOD and are willing to share it, please contact me. I am researching in this area now and would like to speak to people who have personal knowlege of what all has gone on for the past decade or two.
    GFS