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Originally Posted by El Blanco
It was a reporter who wrote bad things about the administration. They were going to call it a mugging.
Or, better yet, its the guy with grainy video of what might be a puff of smoke that proves beyond a shaddow of a doubt that 9/11 was an inside job.
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It appears to me that you are making fun of me.
The possible reason for the cover up was because Cheney didn't want anyone to know that he may have been hunting illegally...
Papers Carry Differing Accounts of Sheriff's Office Questioning Cheney
By E&P Staff
Published: February 13, 2006 7:00 PM ET
NEW YORK Several newspapers today carried wildly different accounts of the aftermath of the Saturday incident in which Vice President Cheney shot a hunting companion at a ranch in Texas.
The New York Times reports Tuesday that the local sheriff, Ramon Salinas III of Kenedy County, said the Secret Service called him shortly after the shooting occurred.
"Sheriff Salinas said he sent his chief deputy, Gilbert Sanmiguel, to the Armstrong Ranch that night," the Times relates. "He said Mr. Sanmiguel interviewed Mr. Cheney and reported that the shooting was an accident."
The Dallas Morning News, at the same time, reports that "questions remained as to why Mr. Cheney was not interviewed on Saturday."
Chief Deputy Gilbert San Miguel suggested he always knew where the vice president and the other witnesses were. "We were always in contact with Secret Service," he told the paper.
Sheriff Salinas said he decided Saturday night not to send anyone to the ranch and added that he was relying on information from others that it was an accident. "If I wanted to go in there, we would have gone in there," he told the Dallas paper. "If someone called and told me there was a shooting and they didn't think it was an accident, I'd have five or six people on the ranch."
The Washington Post reports Tuesday: "Local law enforcement officials did not interview Cheney until Sunday morning, about 14 hours after the shooting, in an agreement worked out between the Secret Service and Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said at least one deputy was turned away shortly after the shooting because security personnel at the ranch were not aware of the agreement between the sheriff and the Secret Service."
Meanwhile, Texas state wildlife officials reported Monday that while Vice President Cheney had purchased a valid non-resident hunting license, he did not obtain a required "upland game bird stamp."
A warning citation--which carries no fine or penalty--will be issued to Cheney, which state officials described as "routine." Cheney's office said he would promptly send in the $7 for the stamp. However, as the Dallas Morning News headlined on its Web site, he was, on Saturday, "hunting illegally."
The first official report on the shooting of a fellow hunter on Saturday by Cheney was issued late today by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It follows much controversy and speculaton stemming from the failure of the vice president or the White House to announce the incident for 18 hours.
The report, posted at the Smoking Gun site, confirmed the time of shooting of Harry Whittington at 5:30 pm on Saturday and that Cheney was wearing a "blaze orange" cap and "coat/vest" and brown trousers and was toting a Perazzi .28 caliber shotgun.
The "Game Law Violated" box was checked, with the violation listed as section "P&W Code 43.652." According to an online rundown on that sectin, this relates to the lack of the upland bird stamp. The text follows: "Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may not hunt a migratory or upland game bird in this state unless the person has acquired a migratory or upland game bird stamp, as applicable, issued to the person by the department."
At the same time, the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office this afternoon issued a press release noting that an "investigation reveals that there was no alcohol, or misconduct involved in the incident." It added that Whittington "collaborated Vice President Cheney's statement," and concluded, "This was no more than a hunting accident."
Meanwhile, one of the many odd details about the episode involves the third hunter in the group. Some news outlets, including The Associated Press in some dispatches, after not disclosed the name, while many others have said it was Pam Willeford, the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and a native Texan.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/ea..._id=1001996219
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