Durbin Statement on Vice President Cheney's Refusal to Follow Executive Order

Statement

United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) issued the following statement today, following news reports that Vice President Dick Cheney has attempted to exempt the Office of the Vice President from the executive order establishing a uniform, government-wide system for safeguarding classified national security information.

"Vice President Cheney is expanding the Administration's policy on torture to include tortured logic. In the end neither Mr. Cheney or his staff is above the law or the Constitution.

For the Vice President to believe that he has no responsibility to meet this requirement of the law is a dereliction of duty and responsibility to the people of the United States. And for him to attempt to a abolish the agency that was putting pressure on him to follow the law shows that he's gone entirely too far.

Vice President Cheney is not above the law. I sincerely hope the Vice President will make it clear in the week ahead that he is finally going to comply with this executive order, that he is going to make sure that we protect classified information."

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