Cheney Shoots Hunter

[Swamp Gas]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060212/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_hunting_accident

Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.


Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was "alert and doing fine" in a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday after he was shot by Cheney on a ranch in south Texas, said Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner.

He was described as in stable condition by Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi.

Armstrong in an interview with The Associated Press said Whittington, 78, was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest during the incident which occurred late afternoon on Saturday

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington until the ambulance arrived.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday.

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. The vice president's office did not disclose the accident until nearly 24 hours after it happened.

Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

Whittington has been a private practice attorney in Austin since 1950 and has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He's been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission.

Whittington owns property in Travis County worth at least $11 million, the Austin American-Statesman reported last year, not counting a downtown block at the center of a long-running dispute with the city over a condemnation issue.

Armstrong, owner of the Armstrong Ranch where the accident occurred, said Whittington was bleeding and Cheney was very apologetic.

"It broke the skin," she said of the shotgun pellets. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

Cheney is an avid hunter who makes annual hunting trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants. He also travels frequently to Arkansas to hunt ducks.

Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year and is "a very safe sportsman." She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.

"This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.

[increase 1776]

"The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came." Must be nice.Here in our little community they charge $700.00 for an ambulance ride.This sadistic prick has one on call 24/7 and free of charge.Too bad the roles weren't reversed.

[Thetaloops]

I'd like to see Cheny get some BBs shot at his butt, by accident of course.
Let him have to hurt everytime he sits down for a long while.

[Mech]

Can you imagine if you or I did that.

Faster than you can say J-A-I-L...we'd never be able to possess a firearm again.

This guy should be held accountable like the rest of us.

But...he won't be.

Executive privelage/immunity.

[Swamp Gas]

By Paul Begala

As a guy whose been hunting in South Texas for 30 years, and who's
been hunting three times in the past six weeks, I cringe at the
Washington Post's use of the benign verb "sprayed" in the lede of the
Cheney hunting accident story.

When you hit a man with a 28 gauge (likely 7 and a half shot) and
land him in intensive care, you have not "sprayed" him. You've shot
him.

I realize reporters were reliant wholly on Katharine Armstrong, Mr.
Cheney's host, who laid the whole thing at Whittington's feet, but let
me offer a few observations.


On the notion that a 28 gauge "shoots fewer pellets and has a smaller
shot pattern than a 12 gauge," as the Washington Post reports: That's
true. But no one hunts quail with a 12 gauge. A 12 gauge is used for
high-flying, large birds like geese, ducks and pheasants. If you
brought a 12 gauge to a quail hunt you'd be laughed off the
ranch...and if you hit a bird there'd be nothing left but feathers and
feet.

Second, was Mr. Whittington 30 yards away - as the Post reports - or
30 feet, as the Times reports? The difference is important.

Third: It is not best practice - in fact it's unsafe - to send 3 guns
into the field and to chase 2 coveys at once. I would never - ever -
go chasing a second covey while someone else was occupied with a first
covey. My experience is that safe quail hunters generally hunt no
more than 2 guns in the field at a time, and chase one covey at a
time. To do otherwise is reckless

Ms. Armstrong says Whittington should have announced himself upon
approaching Cheney. That is right. At the same time, Cheney, as a
shooter, has an obligation to be aware at all times of the whereabouts
of the dogs (who don't announce themselves) his fellow hunters, the
guides, dog handlers, etc. I've been on hunting parties of ten men,
and it's the obligation of the shooters to know where each of them is,
and to be sure they are safe. Cheney knew Whittington was chasing a
bird. If he could not see Whittington, if he was not 100 percent sure
of his whereabouts, he should not have taken a shot. No bird is worth
it.

In sum, even from Ms. Armstrong's whitewashed account, it sounds to me
like Cheney was not being safe.

To quote Mary Matalin to vouch for Cheney's safety, as the Post does,
is absurd. I love Mary - she's married to my best friend. But she
was 1500 miles away, drinking a fine Rhone, no doubt. And I daresay
she's never been hunting in her life. And yet the Post quotes her
reassuring us that Cheney "was not careless or incautious." Baloney.
That's like quoting me on Mrs. Bush's inaugural ball gown. I didn't
attend the event, and I don't know squat about the subject.

While hunting accidents do happen, this one may have been avoidable -
if Mr. Cheney and his companions had been less trigger-happy and more
prudent.

But I guess we already knew that.

[Swamp Gas]

TV Comedians Target Cheney Accident

Tuesday, February 14, 2006



(02-14) 01:10 PST Los Angeles (AP) --


Television talk shows took aim Monday at Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental weekend shooting in Texas of a hunting companion. Here are a few of the jokes.


___


"Late Show with David Letterman," CBS:


_ "Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It's Dick Cheney."


_ "But here is the sad part — before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armor."


_ "We can't get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney."


_ "The guy who got gunned down, he is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor and fortunately the buck shot was deflected by wads of laundered cash. So he's fine. He took a little in the wallet."


__


"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," NBC:


_ "Although it is beautiful here in California, the weather back East has been atrocious. There was so much snow in Washington, D.C., Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fat guy thinking it was a polar bear.


_ "That's the big story over the weekend. ... Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 percent."


_ "I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, 'Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?'"


_ "Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine's Day. It's the new Dick Cheney cologne. It's called Duck!"


___


"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Comedy Central:


_ "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt ... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, (was) shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird."


_ "Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... moms, dads, if you're watching right now, I can't emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulations they're trying to get lifted — it's just not worth it."


___


"Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," CBS:


_ "He is a lawyer and he got shot in the face. But he's a lawyer, he can use his other face. He'll be all right."


_ "You can understand why this lawyer fellow let his guard down, because if you're out hunting with a politician, you think, 'If I'm going to get it, it's going to be in the back.'"


_ "The big scandal apparently is that they didn't release the news for 18 hours. I don't think that's a scandal at all. I'm quite pleased about that. Finally there's a secret the vice president's office can keep."


"Apparently the reason they didn't release the information right away is they said we had to get the facts right. That's never stopped them in the past."

[Bhang]

This just in:

Hunter Shot by Cheney Has Heart Attack
www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/14/D8FP24A00.html

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas

The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a "minor heart attack," a hospital official said Tuesday.

Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated.

He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a birdshot pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week.

Whittington, a prominent Republican attorney from Austin, was accidentally sprayed with shotgun pellets when Cheney was aiming for a quail Saturday.

Whittington had initially been placed in intensive care. He had been moved to a "step-down unit" Monday after doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.

A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney. "Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest at approximately 30 yards," the report said.

The wildlife department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a "hunter's judgment factor." No other secondary factors were found to have played a role.

[DannyRock]

It didn't take them long to jump on this one...





Sure he wasn't hunting for Quayle?

[DannyRock]

Cheney shoots Lawyer and Lawyer has "minor" heart attack.


February 14, 2006

Hunter Shot by Cheney Suffers Mild Heart Attack
By MARIA NEWMAN

The 78-year-old lawyer who was accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday suffered a mild heart attack today after bird shot migrated to his heart, doctors in South Texas said.

Doctors said Mr. Whittington was moved back into the intensive care unit after his heart monitors detected an irregular beat this morning. After consulting with cardiologists in Corpus Christi, Tex., where he is being treated, and with those on the White House medical team, his doctors decided to perform a cardiac catheterization around 10 a.m. Eastern time to determine the extent of the damage.

Peter Banko, the administrator of Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, said that the procedure, which sends a dye into the blood vessels all the way to the heart, detected one BB size pellet in his heart that was causing his heart to quiver.

"Some of the bird shot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart, causing the arterial fibrillation, in what we would say is a minor heart attack," Dr. Banko told reporters this afternoon at a news briefing outside the hospital.

He said Mr. Whittington was in stable condition now, and alert, but that he would remain in the hospital for at least another week to make sure that pellet and any others did not continue to move to other vital organs.

But Dr. David Blanchard, the hospital's chief of emergency, said the pellet "does not appear to be mobile."

In Washington, Mr. Cheney's office said the vice president was told when he arrived at the White House this morning that doctors had decided to perform the catheterization on Mr. Whittington.

They also said the vice president had called Mr. Whittington at about 1:30 p.m., after the procedure, and had spoken with him.

"The vice president wished Mr. Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed," the statement said. "The vice president said that he stood ready to assist. Mr. Whittington's spirits were good, but obviously his situation deserves the careful monitoring that his doctors are providing.

"The vice president said that his thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Whittington and his family," the statement went on to say.

This was the first official statement from the vice president that mentioned Mr. Whittington, who suffered birdshot wounds to his face, neck, chest and rib cage from the pellets sprayed at him from 30 yards away by Mr. Cheney's shotgun.

The two had been among a group of friends who gathered for a weekend of quail hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas.

The White House has been grappling with questions and criticism about why it took the better part of a day to disclose that Mr. Cheney had accidentally wounded his fellow hunter on Saturday afternoon and why even President Bush initially got an incomplete report on the shooting.

As recently as this morning, the administration appeared to be adopting a more light-hearted tone about the accident, with President Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, making a joke at a White House news briefing. The news of Mr. Whittington's setback appeared to alter the tone of the administration's reaction.

Dr. Blanchard, at a news briefing with reporters outside the hospital, said that with birdshot wounds, the first 24 to 72 hours were important because that is when the pellets are settling themselves in the body. Dr. Blanchard said that doctors could not determine exactly how many pellets were in Mr. Whittington's body, but that it was "more than the fingers of my two hands, but less than 150 or 200."

He said that only one pellet appeared to have reached Mr. Whittington's heart, and that doctors, believing it would not move, decided, in consultation with Mr. Whittington's family, not to remove it through surgery.

"As far as I know the BB is in a fixed position; it's not mobile," Dr. Blanchard said.

"There's tens of thousands of people that go around with shrapnel in their body every year," he said. "We know the general area that it's in. We know what it's doing.

"Some people can have some problems and difficulties, but certainly that's why we're watching him closely," he said.

Mr. Whittington, a prominent 78-year-old Austin lawyer and longtime Republican supporter, has been described by family and friends as being in strong physical shape.

"We are very, very optimistic that with Mr. Whittington's strong heart, his personality, his stamina, the will, that he will do very well and we're prepared to deal with anything that may develop," Dr. Blanchard said.

The shooting has made Mr. Cheney the butt of late-night comics' jokes that have circulated quickly through the Internet and water cooler chat. On Monday, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, was put on the defensive by White House reporters for the way the matter was disclosed.

Instead of an official notification by the press offices of either the White House or the vice president, the news was disclosed when Katherine Armstrong, one of the owners of the ranch, who had been on the hunting trip, called a reporter at The Corpus Christi Caller-Times, her local newspaper, around noontime on Sunday.

The Caller-Times posted an article on its Web site by early afternoon, and reporters elsewhere began questioning the White House about the matter after that.

Today, the topic continued to dominate in Washington circles. At least before news of Mr. Whittington's mild heart attack, the White House and other top officials seemed to share in some of the humor that others were finding in the matter.

When President Bush greeted the championship University of Texas Longhorns at the White House this morning, Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, made note that orange was the university's school color.

"The orange that they're wearing is not because they're concerned that the vice president may be there," Mr. McClellan said. "That's why I'm wearing it."

And in Tampa, Fla., the president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, slapped an orange sticker on his chest from the Florida Farm Bureau that read, "No Farmers, No Food," and referred to the shooting.

"I'm a little concerned that Dick Cheney is going to walk in," the governor said on Monday.

www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/politics/14cnd-cheney.html?hp&ex=1139979600&en=63a05f9718052989&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Swamp Gas]

news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060215/cm_thenation/160212;_ylt=A86.I1cDX_ND4h4BGQj9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Cheney, "A Beer or Two," and a Gun

John Nichols

1 hour, 3 minutes ago



The Nation -- Vice President Dick Cheney, who was forced to leave Yale University because his penchant for late-night beer drinking exceeded his devotion to his studies, and who is one of the small number of Americans who can count two drunk driving busts on his driving record, may have been doing more than hunting quail on the day that he shot a Texas lawyer in the face.

Katherine Armstrong, the wealthy Republican lobbyist who is a member member of the politically-connected family that owns the ranch where Cheney blasted his hunting partner, acknowledged to a reporter for MSNBC that alcohol may have been served at a picnic which was served Saturday afternoon on the dude ranch where Cheney shot Harry Whittington.

According to an MSNBC report that appeared briefly Tuesday on the network's website, Armstrong peddled the line that she did not believe that alcohol played a part in the shooting accident. But, she admitted, "There may be a beer or two in there, but remember not everyone in the party was shooting."

The MSNBC story, which appeared only briefly before the website was scrubbed for reasons not yet explained, has been kept alive by the able web investigators at www.rawstory.com and other progressive blogs. And so it should be, as the prospect that alcohol may have been involved in the Texas incident takes the story in a whole new direction.

By any reasonable measure, Armstrong's attempt to downplay the presence of "a beer or two" raises more questions than it answers about an incident involving a vice president who, like George W. Bush, was a heavy drinker in his youth, but who, unlike Bush, never swore off the bottle.

As with her over-the-top efforts to blame Whittington, the victim, for getting in the way of Cheney's birdshot blast, Armstrong's line on liquor smells a little more like an attempt to cover for the vice president than full disclosure.

This is where the hunting accident "incident" becomes a serious matter. The role played by the Secret Service in preventing questioning of Cheney on the evening of the shooting becomes takes on new significance. If Cheney was in any way impaired at the time of the shooting, it was certainly to the vice president's advantage put off the official investigation until the next morning.

Cheney may be able to say, unequivocally, that he was not in an impaired condition when he shot Whittington. But he does now need to start speaking to this precise issue and to all of the other questions that have been raised -- and, no, it is not enough for the vice president to take a few softballs on Fox News, the administration's house network, as the White House crisis management team arranged for him to do at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday.

When legitimate questions arise regarding the role that the Secret Service might have played in undermining the investigation of a shooting in order to protect the vice president from embarrassment, and possible legal charges, those issues have to be addressed fully and completely. And they must be addressed in a setting where reporters are able to press the notoriously cagey Cheney to actually answer all of the questions that are asked.

Up to now, the whole "hunting-accident" controversy has been little more than a diversion from more serious matters involving Cheney -- not least among these, the investigation into whether the vice president authorized the release of classified information as part of a scheme to discredit critics of the administration's rush to war. But if Cheney used his Secret Service unit to prevent a necessary and proper official inquiry at a time when it might have uncovered relevant information regarding his condition when he shot a man, then the vice president has abused his office in a most serious manner.

The prospect that such an abuse occurred requires Cheney and any White House aides who were involved in "managing" the story -- put Karl Rove at the top of this list -- to stop stonewalling and provide a detailed explanation of their actions in the hours that followed the shooting incident. This is certainly not the only issue on which the vice president needs to come clean, but it is no longer a joking matter -- or, more precisely, it is no longer merely a joking matter.

John Nichols' book, The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Most Powerful Vice President in American History (The New Press) is available nationwide at independent bookstores and at www.amazon.com. Publisher's Weekly describes it as "a Fahrenheit 9/11 for Cheney" and Esquire magazine says it "reveals the inner Cheney."

[Swamp Gas]

www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506J.shtml



Gonzales Withholding Plame Emails

By Jason Leopold

t r u t h o u t | Report

Wednesday 15 February 2006

Sources close to the investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have revealed this week that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not turned over emails to the special prosecutor's office that may incriminate Vice President Dick Cheney, his aides, and other White House officials who allegedly played an active role in unmasking Plame Wilson's identity to reporters.

Moreover, these sources said that, in early 2004, Cheney was interviewed by federal prosecutors investigating the Plame Wilson leak and testified that neither he nor any of his senior aides were involved in unmasking her undercover CIA status to reporters and that no one in the vice president's office had attempted to discredit her husband, a vocal critic of the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence. Cheney did not testify under oath or under penalty of perjury when he was interviewed by federal prosecutors.

The emails Gonzales is said to be withholding contained references to Valerie Plame Wilson's identity and CIA status and developments related to the inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Moreover, according to sources, the emails contained suggestions by the officials on how the White House should respond to what it believed were increasingly destructive comments Wilson had been making about the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence.

Gonzales, who at the time of the leak was the White House counsel, spent two weeks with other White House attorneys screening emails turned over to his office by roughly 2,000 staffers following a deadline imposed by the White House in 2003. The sources said Gonzales told Fitzgerald more than a year ago that he did not intend to turn over the emails to his office, because they contained classified intelligence information about Iraq in addition to minor references to Plame, the sources said.

He is said to have cited "executive privilege" and "national security concerns" as the reason for not turning over some of the correspondence, which allegedly proves Cheney's office played an active role in leaking Plame Wilson's undercover CIA status to reporters, the attorneys said.

Aside from the emails that have not been turned over, there are also emails that Patrick Fitzgerald, the Special Prosecutor investigating the case, believes were either "shredded" or deleted, the attorneys said.

In a court document dated January 23, Fitzgerald says that, during the course of his investigation, he had been told that some emails from the offices of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had not been saved. His letter does not claim that any member of the Bush administration discarded the emails, but sources close to the probe say that is what Fitzgerald has been alleging privately.

"In an abundance of caution," Fitzgerald's January 23 letter to Libby's defense team states, "we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system."

Spokespeople for Gonzales and the White House would not comment citing the ongoing investigation. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Fitzgerald, also wouldn't comment. A spokesman for Cheney did not return calls for comment nor did Cheney's criminal attorney, Terrence O'Donnell.

Cheney testified for a little more than an hour about his role in the leak in early 2004. What he told prosecutors appears to be identical to testimony his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, gave before a grand jury during the same year. Libby was indicted on five-counts of obstruction of justice, perjury, and lying to investigators related to his role in the Plame Wilson leak.

Two weeks ago, additional court documents related to Libby's case were made public. In one document, Fitzgerald responded to Libby's defense team that Libby had testified before a grand jury that his "superiors" authorized him to leak elements of the highly classified National Intelligence Estimate to reporters in the summer of 2003 that showed Iraq to be a grave nuclear threat, to rebut criticism that the administration manipulated pre-war Iraq intelligence.

News reports citing people familiar with Libby's testimony said Cheney had authorized Libby to do so. Additionally, an extensive investigation during the past month has shown that Cheney, Libby and former Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley spearhead an effort beginning in March 2003 to discredit Plame Wilson's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the administration's intelligence related to Iraq, who had publicly criticized the administration for relying on forged documents to build public support for the war.

Cheney did not disclose this information when he was questioned by investigators.

Cheney responded to questions about how the White House came to rely on Niger documents that purportedly showed that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the African country. Cheney said he had received an intelligence briefing on the allegations in late December 2003 or early January 2004 and had asked the CIA for more information about the issue.

Cheney said he was unaware that Wilson was chosen to travel to Niger to look into the uranium claims and that he never saw a report Wilson had given a CIA analyst upon his return, which stated that the Niger claims were untrue. He said the CIA never told him about Wilson's trip.

However, these attorneys said that witnesses in the case have testified before a grand jury that Cheney, Libby, Hadley, the Pentagon, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Justice Department, the FBI, and other senior aides in the Office of the Vice President, the President, and the National Security Council had received and read a March 9, 2002, cable sent to his office by the CIA that debunked the Niger claims.

The cable, which was prepared by a CIA analyst and based on Wilson's fact-finding mission, did not mention Wilson by name, but quoted a CIA source and Niger officials Wilson had questioned during his eight-day mission, who said there was no truth to the claims that Iraq had tried to purchase 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore from Niger.

Several current and former State Department and CIA officials familiar with the March 9, 2002, cable said they had testified before the grand jury investigating the Plame Wilson leak that they had spoken to Libby and Hadley about the cable, and that they were told Cheney had also read it.

Cheney told investigators that when Wilson began speaking to reporters on background about his secret mission to Niger to investigate Iraq's alleged attempts to purchase uranium, he asked Libby to contact the CIA to "get more information" about the trip and to find out if it was true, the attorneys added.

Furthermore, Cheney told prosecutors that before he learned of Wilson's trip, his office simply sought to rebut statements made by Wilson to reporters and the various newspaper reports that said the Bush administration knowingly relied on flawed intelligence to build a case for war.

Moreover, Cheney said that he and his aide were concerned that reporters had been under the impression that Cheney chose Wilson for the Niger trip, the attorneys said. Cheney testified that he instructed Libby and other aides to coordinate a response to those queries and rebut those allegations with the White House press office.

"In his testimony the vice president said that his staff referred media calls about Wilson to the White House press office," one attorney close to the case said. "He said that was the appropriate venue for responding to statements by Mr. Wilson that he believed were wrong."

Cheney told investigators that he first learned about Valerie Plame Wilson and her employment with the CIA from Libby. Cheney testified that Libby told him that several reporters had contacted him in July to say that Plame Wilson had been responsible for arranging her husband's trip to Niger to investigate the Niger uranium claims.

Cheney also testified that the next time he recalled hearing about Plame Wilson and her connection to Joseph Wilson was when he read about her in a July 14, 2003, column written by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

[Swamp Gas]

www.infowars.com/articles/us/cheney_shooting_coverup_in_progress_ballistics.htm


Secret Service stalls and delays for Cheney

Cover-up in progress and Shotgun ballistics don’t match-up!

Infowars | February 14, 2006
By Kevin Smith

Cheney Shooting Update

By Alex Jones


What we had deducted almost immediately after Cheney machine began rolling on this shooting is now finally starting to filter out into the rest of the media: It is not only unlikely that Whittington was injured in the way he reportedly was if Cheney had shot him from 30 yards it is impossible.

After reviewing the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife report on the shooting, there is no doubt that this is a cover-up.

The pattern of the birdshot depicted in the diagram on the report indicates about a foot spread from cheek to chest.

As we previously reported, birdshot is not like a traditional bullet. Birdshot is composed of hundreds of tiny lead BB's with very low mass which are designed to spread out and slow down very quickly. The idea is basically to shoot out a bunch of tiny pellets to catch a bird that may be taking wing at the instant it recognizes the shot has been fired. Many points ensure greater likelyhood of hitting the target.

These pellets are incredibly tiny and the further they get away from the gun, the slower and less forceful they become. So at a distance of about 90 feet (or 30 yards as reported by the White House) the pellets would have hit Whittington with the force equivilent to a gentle shove and have left maybe some tiny surface marks on any exposed skin.

The only way to account for the pattern indicated on the TDPW report is if Cheney was about 10 feet away from Whittington when he shot him.


Reports and press releases that followed the event explained that some of the pellets had become lodged in his heart tissue. The only way this is possible, the only way that the tiny pellets designed to spread over distance could have maintained the force necessary to penetrate Whittington's hunting vest, clothing, skin, muscle, bone and finally into his rock-hard heart would have been if they came from a much shorter distance than the White House is claiming.

The initial reports have Whittington making jokes and feeling fine after the shooting, but doctors would have been able to diagnose with a simple x-ray that there was a chunk of metal in his heart tissue immediately upon receiving him. Now that he has taken a turn for the worse, they are in scramble-mode to cover-up what really happened in case he dies.
RELATED:

Cheney's shotgun

Media Ignores Cheney 'Smoking Gun'

Texas Sheriff Barred From Interviewing Cheney About Shooting Incident

More Questions Raised About Delay in Reporting Cheney Misfire

Hunter Shot by Cheney Has Heart Attack

When initial reports of Vice President Cheney's hunting accident surfaced I must admit that I thought something seemed amiss. Simply put, the scenario as related by the White House violates all the rules of Bird Hunting 101.

Rule Number One: You don’t rotate out of a limited arc of fire when you’re hunting with three or four other hunters. Reports are that Cheney tracked a quail that had flushed, then he quickly swung around and shot. Unfortunately Mr. Whittington and the bird were in the same place at the same time.

"This all happened pretty quickly," Ms. Armstrong, the owner of the property where Cheney and his buddies had been hunting, said in a telephone interview from her ranch. Mr. Whittington, she said, "did not announce — which would be protocol — 'Hey, it's me, I'm coming up,' " she said.

It’s not clear whether or not they were using birddogs, but it seems silly to suggest that hunters would yell out their postions while stalking through fields and brush trying to sneak up on their prey. Furthermore, since hunters wear hearing protection, verbal communication is not the most effective form of identification. That’s why hunters wear bright orange vest and hats, all reports indicate this was the case with Cheney and his hunting party.

"It's incumbent upon the shooter to assess the situation and make sure it's a safe shot," said Mark Birkhauser, President-elect of the International Hunter Education Association and Hunter Education Coordinator in New Mexico. "Once you squeeze that trigger, you can't bring that shot back."

The same basic comment is echoed by Duane Harvey, President of the Wisconsin Hunter Education Instructors Association, who said if Whittington had made his presence known "that would have been a polite thing to do." But, he added, "it's still the fault upon the shooter to identify his target and what is beyond it."

Then comes the delay of Sheriff Ramon Salinas III of Kenedy County access to the Vice President from the time of the shooting at 5:30 p.m. Saturday until an interview at 8 a.m. Sunday morning.

Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren stated that about an hour after the shooting the local Secret Service office notified the Sheriffs' Department of the shooting and arrangements were made for an interview. Saturday night at least one deputy showed up at the ranch's front gate and asked to speak to Cheney but was turned away by the Secret Service, Zahren said. This sort of delaying tactic is indicative of drunk-driving hit and runs by rich kids allowing the necessary time to sober up, contact your attorney and get your story straight.

Numerous reports stated that Mr. Whittington injuries were not life threatening and that he was in good spirits and cracking jokes. Now the story has become that there are pellets lodged in his heart and he’s now had a heart attack.
No one is saying this shooting was intentional or done with any malice whatsoever, but after you look over the ballistic statistics that we complied from the Tactical Shotgun website it will be all too obvious that the story offered by the White House, that Mr. Whittington was peppered with birdshot from 30 yards away is simply false. Remember these statistics are complied for a much more powerful 12 gauge round versus a dainty 28 gauge, and from a distance of only 3 yards (9ft).

Birdshot

Birdshot is typically a poor choice for deployment as a tactical load, owing primarily to it's poor sectional density. It bleeds velocity and energy quickly and as such has limited effectiveness at close range which rapidly erodes to zero effectiveness as range increases. Ironically, people often choose birdshot because of it's poor sectional density/penetrating capability. This choice is often made in consideration of a densely populated urban or family environment where the shotgun operators are concerned about collateral damage as a result of either building material penetration in the event of missed shots and over penetration in the event of a good, solid hit on target.

The simple truth of the matter is that unless contact distances are involved (5 yards or less), most birdshot lacks the penetrating capability required to inflict meaningful wound trauma. Wounds from birdshot tend to be extremely gruesome, yet shallow. They often shred and destroy a large volume of tissue but don't penetrate deep enough to damage critical cardiovascular or CNS structures required for incapacitation. Clothing can further amplify these poor penetration characteristics.

While increasingly difficult to acquire as a result of being banned for waterfowl hunting, lead BB is likely the smallest shot we would elect to use in a tactical application. This choice would only be made in the densely populated family/urban environment mentioned above, and anyone making this choice would be wisely counciled to have more significant ammunition immediately available in the event that the lead BB does not produce the desired effect.

Gelatin Testing: #4 Birdshot

Statistics

* Range: 3 yards
* Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
* Round: 12 gauge 2¾ Remington Heavy Dove 1-1/8 oz #4 Birdshot
* Gelatin: 9'x9'x19' 10% ordinance gelatin block
* Measured Average Permenant Cavity: 6.5 inches (16.5 cm)
* Temporary Stretch Cavity: 0.0 to 6.0 inches (0.0 to 15.2 cm)
* Calibration BB Velocity: 624 fps
* Calibration BB Penetration: 12.3 cm


#4 Remington Heavy Dove out of an 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnum

Observations
Small sized birdshot such as this #4 heavy dove load is a poor choice for deployment with a tactical shotgun. Wounds inflicted from birdshot tend to be gruesome yet shallow as they lack the penetration required to reach vital cardiovascular or central nervous system structures.

Gelatin Testing: Kent Tungsten Matrix #5 Birdshot

Statistics

* Range: 3 yards
* Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
* Round: 12 gauge 2¾ Kent Tungsten Matrix #5 Birdshot
* Gelatin: 9'x9'x19' 10% ordinance gelatin block
* Measured Average Permenant Cavity Penetration: 7.5 inches (19.5 cm)
* Measured Temporary Stretch Cavity: 0.0 to 6.5 inches (0.0 - 16.5 cm)
* Calibration BB Velocity: 631 fps
* Calibration BB Penetration: 14.3 cm





Small sized birdshot such as this #5 Tungsten Matrix load is a poor choice for deployment with a tactical shotgun. Wounds inflicted from birdshot tend to be gruesome yet shallow as they lack the penetration required to reach vital cardiovascular or central nervous system structures.

The only way that birdshot could have possibly penetrated into Whittington's heart, given the minimal force impact capacity of the shot is if he was shot from incredibly close range. This then means that the whole event requires a greater level of scrutiny. If they lied about the distance of the shot, its probably one of many lies.

The delay in reporting the event to the authorities and the delay in the White House's release of the information to the press is more evidence of impropriety.

It seems clear that this is a cover-up in progress. The hospital where Whittington was taken after the shooting is a heavily guarded facility where he is being operated upon and monitored by doctors and surgeons close to the President and Vice President. These highly skilled medical professionals would have known instantly by a simple X-Ray if he had suffered from a shot to the heart. These doctors, loyal to the the Bush-Cheney cabal are clearly colluding to conceal information about Whittington's actual condition for their masters.

Cheney is powermad and thinks he should be free to get away with anything. He obviously belives that he and his buddies are above the law. The event very well might have been a stupid, drunken hunting accident but it has now become a multi-tiered cover-up to conceal what really happened.

[DannyRock]

Case closed

Sheriff: Dick Cheney Won't Face Charges

Feb 16, 3:21 PM (ET)

SARITA, Texas (AP) - The sheriff's department closed its investigation Thursday into Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner and said no charges will be filed.

The Kenedy County Sheriff's Department issued a report that largely supports the vice president's account of the weekend accident that wounded 78-year-old lawyer Harry Whittington.

Whittington, interviewed in the hospital, assured investigators no one was drinking when the accident occurred and everyone was wearing bright orange safety gear, according to the report.

Sheriff's dispatcher Diana Mata, speaking for the department, said the case is closed and no charges will be filed. She said Sheriff Ramon Salinas would have no comment on the report.

Whittington was peppered with bird shot in the face and chest Saturday while hunting quail with Cheney on a ranch in South Texas. He is in a Corpus Christi hospital in stable condition after suffering a mild heart attack caused by a pellet that traveled to his heart.

Gilberto San Miguel Jr., an investigator with the Sheriff's Department, interviewed Cheney at the ranch a day after the shooting. San Miguel reported that Cheney shook his hand and "told me he was there to cooperate in any way with the interview."

The vice president said the sun was setting when Whittington fired at some quail and went to find his downed birds, according to the report.

Cheney said he walked about 100 yards and met up with the hunting guide. He said a bird flew behind him, and he followed it in a counterclockwise direction, not realizing Whittington had walked up behind him to rejoin the group. He said Whittington was about 30 yards away, on lower ground, when he fired his shotgun.

"Mr. Cheney told me if Mr. Whittington was on the same ground level the injuries might have been lower on Mr. Whittington's body," the investigator reported.

The investigator, accompanied by another officer, briefly interviewed Whittington at his hospital room on Monday.

"I asked Mr. Whittington if we could record our conversation and Mr. Whittington requested not to be recorded due to his voice being raspy," San Miguel wrote.

The investigator asked for an affidavit, and Whittington said he would provide one when he returned home to his office in Austin. Doctors have said Whittington will probably remain hospitalized until next week.

Before a nurse asked the officers to "hurry up so Mr. Whittington could rest," Whittington "explained foremost there was no alcohol during the hunt and everyone was wearing the proper hunting attire of blaze orange," San Miguel reported.

Whittington said the shooting "was just an accident," and he was concerned all the media attention would give hunting in Texas a bad image, the report said.

apnews.myway.com/article/20060216/D8FQDTIOQ.html

[Thetaloops]

Now isn't this all nice and neat. Can't have our great Vice President look like he's an insensative, fumbling killer now, can we? I'm sure he feels so bad.

This administration is an embarrassment to the human race.

It's mine It's mine It's all mine!!

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This little piece is set to Aerosmiths, Jane's Got A Gun. www.bobrivers.com/audiovault/downloads/cheneyvid.asp

[Swamp Gas]

CHeney's Folsum Blues

cheneyplaysfolsom.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

[Swamp Gas]

www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8184.shtml

Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer

By DOUG THOMPSON

Feb 22, 2006, 07:35


A written report from Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago says Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.
Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions, the report said.

According to those who have read the report and talked with others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up.

We talked with a number of administration officials who are privy to inside information on the Vice President's shooting "accident" and all admit Secret Service agents and others saw Cheney consume far more than the "one beer' he claimed he drank at lunch earlier that day.

"This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it."

Cheney has a long history of alcohol abuse, including two convictions of driving under the influence when he was younger. Doctors tell me that someone like Cheney, who is taking blood thinners because of his history of heart attacks, could get legally drunk now after consuming just one drink.

If Cheney was legally drunk at the time of the shooting, he could be guilty of a felony under Texas law and the shooting, ruled an accident by a compliant Kenedy County Sheriff, would be a prosecutable offense.

But we will never know for sure because the owners of the Armstrong Ranch, where the shooting occurred, barred the sheriff's department from the property on the day of the shooting and Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III agreed to wait until the next day to send deputies in to talk to those involved.

Sheriff's Captain Charles Kirk says he went to the Armstrong Ranch immediately after the shooting was reported on Saturday, February 11 but both he and a game warden were not allowed on the 50,000-acre property. He called Salinas who told him to forget about it and return to the station.

"I told him don't worry about it. I'll make a call," Salinas said. The sheriff claims he called another deputy who moonlights at the Armstrong ranch, said he was told it was "just an accident" and made the decision to wait until Sunday to investigate.

"We've known these people for years. They are honest and wouldn't call us, telling us a lie," Salinas said.

Like all elected officials in Kenedy County, Salinas owes his job to the backing and financial support of Katherine Armstrong, owner of the ranch and the county's largest employer.

"The Armstrongs rule Kenedy County like a fiefdom," says a former employee.

Secret Service officials also took possession of all tests on Whittington's blood at the hospitals where he was treated for his wounds. When asked if a blood alcohol test had been performed on Whittington, the doctors who treated him at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi or the hospital in Kingsville refused to answer. One admits privately he was ordered by the Secret Service to "never discuss the case with the press."

It's a sure bet that is a private doctor who treated the victim of Cheney's reckless and drunken actions can't talk to the public then the memo that shows the Vice President was drunk as a skunk will never see the light of day

[Swamp Gas]

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/02/22/fioredestroyer.DTL

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