Cheney says he can declassify secrets
Vice President Dick Cheney disclosed Wednesday that he has the power to declassify sensitive government information, authority that could set up a criminal defense for his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby.
Cheney’s disclosure comes a week after reports that Libby testified under oath he was authorized by superiors in 2003 to disclose highly sensitive prewar information to reporters. The information, about Iraq and alleged weapons of mass destruction, was used by the Bush administration to bolster its case for invading Iraq.
In an interview on Fox News Channel, Cheney said there is an executive order that gives the vice president, along with the president, the authority to declassify information.
“I have certainly advocated declassification. I have participated in declassification decisions,” Cheney said.
Romulus, Mich.
Pilots report rash of laser beams
Authorities are cracking down on anyone caught shining lasers at airplanes after 16 pilots reported seeing the potentially blinding lights while landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The 16 incidents were all reported Monday evening, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. It was the second rash of incidents at the airport in the past six months.
FBI Special Agent Dawn Clenney said pointing laser beams at airplanes could be considered a terrorist act under the USA Patriot Act and could carry up to 20 years in prison.
Washington
Companies rebuked for China censorship
Google and Yahoo found themselves denigrated as tools of China’s communist government in a congressional hearing Wednesday.
The two Internet giants were among four computer companies summoned to Capitol Hill to answer questions and face rebukes for their business activities in China, which have involved acquiescing to Chinese censorship laws.
Yahoo received a stinging admonition for turning over e-mail account information that led to the imprisonment of a Chinese dissident, Shi Tao. A Yahoo affiliate in China provided the information without requiring a court order from Chinese authorities.
Google came in for perhaps the strongest criticism at the hearing. The Internet giant launched a China version of its search engine that blocks users from obtaining information about the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Falun Gong religious group and other topics banned by Chinese censors.
“This makes you a functionary of the Chinese government,” U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, said after eliciting testimony from Google’s representative indicating that the company models its list of forbidden search terms directly from those on official Chinese search engines.