Taliban Claims Cheney Was Target Of Attack

VP Unharmed By Suicide Bomber During Visit To Afghan Base; As Many As 23 Killed

(CBS/AP)  A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing up to 23 people and wounding 20.

Cheney was unhurt in the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban and was the closest that militants have come to a top U.S. official visiting Afghanistan. At least one U.S. soldier, an American contractor and a South Korean soldier were among the dead, NATO said.

Cheney said the attackers were trying "to find ways to question the authority of the central government." The Taliban said Cheney was the target.

About two hours after the blast, Cheney left on a military flight for Kabul to meet with President Hamid Karzai and other officials, then left Afghanistan.

The vice president had spent the night at the sprawling Bagram Air Base, ate breakfast with the troops and met with Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

He was preparing to leave for a meeting with Karzai when the suicide bomber struck about 10 a.m., sending up a plume of smoke visible by reporters accompanying him. U.S. military officials declared a "red alert" at the base.

"I heard a loud boom," Cheney told reporters. "The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate."

He said he was moved "for a brief period of time" to a bomb shelter on the base near his quarters. "As the situation settled down and they had a better sense of what was going on, I went back to my room," Cheney added.

Asked if the Taliban were trying to send a message with the attack, Cheney said: "I think they clearly try to find ways to question the authority of the central government."

"Striking at Bagram with a suicide bomber, I suppose, is one way to do that," he said. "But it shouldn't affect our behavior at all."

Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to Cheney. "He wasn't near the site of the explosion," Mitchell said. "He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion."

CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports large numbers of Afghan civilians frequently gather at the gates to Bagram in the morning, hoping to get work for the day.

There were conflicting reports on the death toll. Karzai's office said 23 people were killed, including 20 Afghan workers at the base. Another 20 people were injured, it said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said initial reports were that three people were killed, including a U.S. soldier, an American contractor and a South Korean soldier. U.S. officials indicated they planned to update that death toll.

Associated Press reporters at the scene saw 12 bodies being carried in black body bags and wooden coffins from the base entrance into a market area where hundreds of Afghans had gathered to mourn.

Friends and relatives cried and moaned as they took the bodies away from the base. Two men came to the base entrance crying and wringing their hands, one of them screaming, "My brother!"

A message posted on a Web site used by militants said "a mujahid ... carried out a suicide attack in front of the second gate of the Bagram Air Base. ... The target was Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney."

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack, which Ahmadi said was carried out by an Afghan called Mullah Abdul Rahim, of Logar province.

"We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base," Ahmadi told AP by telephone from an undisclosed location. "The attacker was trying to reach Cheney."

Mitchell noted that Cheney's overnight stay occurred only after a meeting with Karzai on Monday was canceled because of bad weather.

"I think it's a far-fetched allegation," he said, referring to the Taliban claim. "The vice president wasn't even supposed to be here overnight, so this would have been a surprise to everybody."

[j-whitman]

I wonder why they didn't give Cheney a shotgun to defend himself.

[emhawks]

I think the CIA is behind this, with a few Taliban fighters & some mercenaries; wouldn't be surprised if Cheney knew it was going to happen. One of the base military commanders said no one knew Cheney was going to be there; but the CIA would know. Sounds like part of the plan might have been let the VP have a "close call" to further justify the Taliban & the War on Terror.
The bad thing is (23) people are dead & Cheney is still alive.

[rharrin1]

Propaganda spin trying to make a coward look like a hero.

[lars008-2009]

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[wayjan107]

Just maybe. Hopefully. You think?
The loud bang Cheney heard just might have knocked the wax from his ears so he can hear what the American people are saying about his war.

Nah. It'll never happen.

[neoconrcrazy]

***xx***

[neoconrcrazy]

***XX***

[dallison7]

***Hey*** ***seven***-***pesos***,

***When*** ***Bush*** ***moved*** ***South*** ***it*** ***lowered*** ***the*** ***IQ*** ***of*** ***both*** ***parts*** ***of*** ***the*** ***country***.

[pwrslm]

Taliban and al Quada had no idea Cheney was around the area.

Its like a media bonanza though, a homicide bomb goes off and it just so happens......that they missed anyways, couldnt get in the front gate, let alone close enough to a single building to do any real damage.

Oh, recoup the loss, they can make a claim and try to garner attention by the world media...it works.

Feed the troll CBS, your a puppet.

[zootallures2]

Maybe Harry Whittington paid them to do it?

[netadmin1-2009]

hey pesos - i like everyone - i invite you to texas - we'll have a party for ya - you will like it but won't live to tell about it. you sure don't fit with most people in the us. in fact - you should go elsewhere...

[monstrousbig]

seven-pesos

I ought to strangle your ******* a$$ and pump southern-style grits into your gaping dead maw.

[bm6005]

gramto11

Shhh! Connecticut doesn't want anyone to know!! Would you?

[gramto7]

Sorry south, but please understand that not all people in the north are that way.
Posted by SHURCH4TRUTH

Shurch4,
Thanks for letting seven-pesos know that not everyone thinks like he/she/it does. I think it is funnt that that person goes on and on about Duhbya and the south when Duhbya was born in Connecticut. That means he contaminated the south when he was a child, he wasn't born here.

[seven-pesos]

bush is an ignorant, slave state piece of dixie azzcrap.

i wipe my azz with the confederate flag.

i shiit on the south.

war, hate, phony christian creeps...

ignorant republican redneck, white trash, slave state south...

bush country!

nothing good comes out of the south.

[jerr11]

but Bush and Cheney are still a thousand million times better than those degenerate Islamic animals who are content to kill for the -fun - of it... That's barbaric slaughter. Senseless, EVIL, murder. Period.

Posted by hypnotoad72 at 06:59 PM : Feb 27, 2007



Yeah, I agree! Senseless deaths are so dumb and barbaric!

At least Bush and Cheney send our young men and women to die for a reason, the no-bid contracts for Halliburton and all their cronies.

The American taxpayers are paying 2 billion a week for the war in Iraq! Now that's genius!

War is great for business!

[j-whitman]

Hypnotoad,,, Then look at our Nations Educational System --- Under Bush's leadership,,, Our ranking has fallen to 17 out of 22 of all industrialized nations... Then look at the abject poverty that has increased in our nation since 2002.

[j-whitman]

Hypnotoad,,, 96% of our casualties are by Sunni's -- Bush/Cheney are now funding radical Sunni Muslems in operations against Iran -- Iran & Sheiits actually support Bush's plan for Baghdad security.

[j-whitman]

Hypnotoad,,, Our military is run by Bush & Cheney, who think New York & New Jersy's air space & sea ports should be in control of Sunni's (UAE). ---- Everything Bush is doing in Iraq benifits the UAE (Sunni's)
--- 9/11 Terrorist & the USS Cole bombing was by Sunni's, most where from the UAE.

[j-whitman]

Hypnotoad,, Bush has never pony'd up... There isn't enough people manufacturing it to meet the demand -- There never was,,, Thanks to thier No-Bid Contracts, & Tax Cuts in war time.