Lawsuit to Ask That Cheney's Papers Be Made Public

The regime of Bush/Cheney is perhaps the most corrupt and lawless in USA history. The Chimperator and his band of thugs have ignored international laws such as the Geneva Conventions, spied on US citizens, and generally acted as if they ruled as divine monarchs accountable to no one. I for one would like to see them held accountable and, if the laws have been broken, prosecuted and imprisoned. Perhaps the most ruthless and amoral of them all is Emperor Palpatine Cheney who seems to use Darth Vader (obviously before he came back from the dark side) as his role model. The man is down right scary and, in my view, evil. Fortunately, a lawsuit is being filed in an effort to prevent Cheney in particular from destroying documents that would disclose his role in the lawless, depraved regime of the last eight years. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years. In a preemptive move, several of them have agreed to join the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney's records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review.

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The goal, proponents say, is to protect a treasure trove of information about national security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, domestic wiretapping, energy policy, and other major issues that could be hidden from the public if Cheney adheres to his view that he is not part of the executive branch.

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Martin J. Sherwin, a history professor at George Mason University and a plaintiff in the case, said it will be impossible to measure Cheney's influence without access to the records. "It horrifies me as a citizen to think our government can operate in total secrecy during the administration and then, after the administration, remain in secrecy," he said.

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For years, Cheney has resisted revealing any aspect of the inner workings of his office; he has shielded information such as the names of industry executives who advised his energy task force, his travel costs and details, and Secret Service logs of visitors to his office and residence.