White House Defends Cheney Over Secrets

Vice President Dick Cheney, left, listens, as President Bush meets with members of Congress, Wednesday, June 20, 2007, in the Oval Office at the White House. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) (Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)

If Cheney's office is not part of the executive branch, "they're going to have to rewrite the textbooks," Aftergood said.

In an eight-page letter to Cheney on Thursday, Waxman said that J. William Leonard, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, told his committee that Cheney's advisers recommended that the executive order be amended to abolish the ISOO.

"I don't think that anyone has suggested that," Perino said.

In the letter, Waxman asked Cheney to respond to a series of questions about why he believes his office is exempt, and what steps his office has taken to ensure that national security information is protected.

"The office of the vice president is in compliance with laws relating to classified material," said Megan McGinn, a spokeswoman for the vice president.

However, according to Waxman, Leonard told the House panel that Cheney's office blocked the archives from doing an onsite inspection of his office in 2004 to make sure classified information was being properly protected.

Data from Cheney's office has not been included in the Information Security Oversight Office reports since it stopped reporting them after 2002.

A White House official said the vice president's office never believed it was required to file the reports, and that when it realized it had done so in 2001 and 2002, it ended the practice.

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On the Net:

House Committee: http://www.oversight.house.gov