Update: CIA got Cheney records request Tuesday afternoon

[katty]

more: http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/04/21/nbc-news-cia-denies-cheney-made-formal-request/

UPDATE (at bottom): NBC reports Cheney’s request to declassify documents came Tuesday afternoon; Ex-VP says memos were released for Dems

After former Vice President Dick Cheney claimed during a Fox News Channel interview Monday night that he had “formally asked” the CIA to declassify memos which “showed the success of” using harsh interrogation practices such as waterboarding against detainees, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald wondered on his Twitter feed, “What mechanism does Cheney have to ‘formally’ ask the CIA to de-classify memos?”

“Did he file a FOIA request?” Greenwald asked.

Cheney had claimed on Fox, “I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”

But, according to two reports on Tuesday, the CIA still has yet to receive a request from Cheney.

“Regarding Vice President Cheney’s request to declassify other memos, a senior intelligence official tells NBC News that the CIA has received no such request from the vice president,” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported, after an interview with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Ca-Dem).

Mitchell added that it was “not clear what they would do if they got one.”

[BridgeTheGap]

1. Shouldn't that be "former" vice president? Does he still think he has the power to do this or

is he acting as a private citizen? I think of FOIA requests only apply to declassified material.
I don't think Cheney is in a position to request anything of the CIA, officially, any way.

[librechik]

2. he actually said "I will formally request..." in the intv. People misunderstood.

too much confusion about this

[BridgeTheGap]

3. But the interviewer (or writer?) referred to Cheney as "vice president" instead of

former vice president. Typically, they use the term "former" when referring to prior office holders.

[lapfog_1]

4. But the central issue remains..

he has no position or authority to "formally request" anything from any agency of the federal government, no more so than you or I or anyone else. He is private citizen Dick Cheney. And those in the CIA who may feel some obligation to this rat bastard would do well to remember that.

Not to mention that he is suspected war criminal.

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. It's bullshit. He knows that they will not release any documents that

might show some of the intelligence received from torture and, if there are no documents (which is highly likely because if they had proof it would have been all over fox snooze) then there are no documents to release.
Then the 25% wing nuts can scream that the documents that don't exist are being held by the Dems.