White House is said to have blocked probe
WASHINGTON — A federal watchdog agency planned to inspect the president's executive offices in the White House in 2005 for evidence of suspected leaks of classified information, but it was rebuffed by Bush administration officials, congressional investigators have been told.
The report of the White House's refusal to be inspected comes amid criticism from congressional Democrats of how President Bush signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to submit to independent oversight of their handling of classified information, but did not enforce it for his office or that of Vice President Dick Cheney.
The blocked inspection was described in an April 23 letter to former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who provided a copy of the letter to the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters Monday that the president considered his office and that of the vice president exempt from his directive. The 2003 executive order addressed a system of safeguards for government agencies aimed at ensuring that classified national security information is properly handled so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, that improper leaks of such information are investigated promptly, and that government secrets are properly declassified at the appropriate time.
The Information Security Oversight Office, an agency within the federal National Archives and Records Administration, is in charge of the effort, with broad authorities that include inspections of government agencies to make sure that they are in compliance.
The president's and vice president's offices handle some of the most highly classified national security information.
The controversy flared up last week when Waxman criticized Cheney for rebuffing the agency's oversight efforts, saying his office's refusal to file annual reports on how much information it was classifying and declassifying had created a potential national security risk.
Waxman also released letters showing that Cheney's office had blocked efforts by the oversight agency's director, J. William Leonard, to inspect the vice president's office in 2003.
On Monday, Perino said she thought the oversight office had "had only a complaint about the vice president's office, not about other places within the executive branch."
