Appeals court skeptical groups can obtain documents from Cheney energy tas

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Most notably, the two judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit who had sided with the two groups in an earlier decision -- Harry Edwards and David Tatel -- said it was doubtful in light of a Supreme Court ruling last June that the organizations had any legal basis to gain access to records of meetings of the energy task force chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Sierra Club and Judicial Watch claim the public has a right to know what role energy company executives played in crafting industry-friendly recommendations. They argue that industry participants who met with administration officials effectively became members of the task force while environmental and other groups were shut out.

. . .

During arguments Thursday, Edwards said the vice president's office already has filed an affidavit stating that no industry officials attended formal meetings or assisted in drafting the task force recommendations. "They have said the committees don't exist as you think they do," Edwards said. "Isn't that the end of the case?"

Judicial Watch lawyer Paul Orfanedes said the group needed more documents to verify the claim. "We need to know the scope of participation of the private parties," Orfanedes said.

But Tatel said Orfanedes was ignoring the Supreme Court's decision, which required courts to be more sensitive about demanding too much information from internal White House deliberations.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/01/27/national1247EST0575.DTL

I found it highly inappropriate that these investigations were put to the back burner during the campaign

"Isn't that the end of the case?" says the Judge.

as well as the OBL links to Saddam during the presidential campaign.....

Im sorry I would not trust Mr. Cheney except maybe for a jump of my car battery off of his pacemaker!!!!

his way into the "government officials" exception.

This is just crap!!!

:argh:

The American people are getting freakin' robbed!!! :mad: