Vice President Cheney warned this week that "the major threat" facing the nation is the possibility that terrorists could detonate a biological or nuclear weapon in a U.S. city.
Cheney told commentator Armstrong Williams that the war on terrorism is "going to go on for a long time" and that U.S. soil remains vulnerable to al Qaeda, the network behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The vice president said one of his biggest worries is "the possibility of that group of terrorists acquiring deadlier weapons to use against us -- a biological weapon of some kind, or even a nuclear weapon." "To contemplate the possibility of them unleashing that kind of capability -- of that kind of weapon, if you will, in the midst of one of our cities -- that's a scary proposition," he said. "It's one of the most important problems we face today, because I think that is the major threat."
Cheney also criticized what he considers a proliferation of "cheap shot journalism" about the administration. "People don't check the facts," he said.
Cheney's language about threats was similar to previous admonitions. He made the remarks in response to a question about what scares him as vice president. He said part of his job is "contemplating sort of worst-case scenarios for attacks on the United States."
Cheney said in the 35-minute interview, taped Monday and made available to The Washington Post yesterday, that he believes "we're winning now" in the war on terrorism.
"We've seen, just recently, of course, the wrap-up of Saddam Hussein, one of the worst offenders in the 20th century," Cheney said. "We've wrapped up a large part of the al Qaeda organization, but there are still a lot of folks out there." He cited an estimate that training camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s produced at least 20,000 terrorists.
Cheney has often been the subject of critical news coverage, including his prewar allegations about the arsenal of unconventional weapons that Hussein might possess, his refusal to release records of his energy policy task force, and his connection to the Halliburton Co., which has been paid $5 billion on government contracts for rebuilding Iraq and has been accused by a Pentagon audit of overbilling the Army by $61 million for gasoline.
Cheney called the free press "a vital part of society," but added: "On occasion, it drives me nuts." When Williams asked what drives him nuts, Cheney said, "When I see stories that are fundamentally inaccurate."
"It's the hypocrisy that sometimes arises when some in the press portray themselves as objective observers of the passing scene, when they obviously are not objective," he said. "Cheap shot journalism. Not everybody is guilty of it, but it happens."
He said coverage has changed over the years, asserting that there is "such an emphasis now on getting there fast with a story that oftentimes accuracy goes out the window."
Cheney did not give examples. But he said many journalists have not tried to find out "the real facts" when writing about Halliburton, a Houston-based energy conglomerate of which he was chairman before becoming Bush's running mate.
"There are an awful lot of people in the press who don't understand the business community," Cheney said. "I think our political opponents have spent a lot of time hammering away on trying to find some allegation that Halliburton got favoritism on contracts, or trying to make some kind of connection they've never been able to make. There's no evidence to support anything like that, but if you repeat it often enough, it becomes sort of an article of faith."
Portions of the interview will air this week on television stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Locally, that includes WBFF, Channel 45, in Baltimore. The conversation will be shown later on Williams's cable show, "The Right Side," which is on Comcast Channel 6 in the District.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6345-2003Dec16?language=printer
