Dick Cheney: Man of mystery emerges

By PAUL WAUGH

Ever since September 11, he's been an international man of mystery, holed up in a secret hideaway, communicating mainly by fuzzy video image. Few knew his whereabouts as he plotted the next stage of his global bombing campaign.

But this week Dick Cheney, Vice-President of the United States, finally emerged blinking into the glare of the media spotlight on a whirlwind diplomatic tour with the first call a meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing St.

President George Bush's right-hand man famously headed off to a nuclear bunker on the day of the attacks on America and has spent most of the time since in an "undisclosed secure location". Sightings of the Veep are almost as rare as those of his arch-enemy, Osama bin Laden, and so it was something of an event when the White House press corps and their British counterparts were allowed to question him.

Vice-President Cheney is staging a 10-day tour of 12 nations to discuss the war in Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and possible action against Iraq.

For a man who is used to the mangled syntax of George Bush, it was perhaps fitting that the Vice-President was greeted by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, before his meeting with Blair.

John Nance Garner, FDR's deputy, famously said the vice-presidency "isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss". History does not yet record whether Prescott views his own job in a similar way, but the comment clearly does not apply to the undeniably powerful Cheney.

He has served under three presidents in a variety of jobs, ranging from chief of staff to Gerald Ford to Defence Secretary under George Bush snr where he played a leading role in the Gulf War. With President Saddam still firmly entrenched in power, many believe that Cheney, with Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, is whispering in the President's ear that now is the time to finish the job his father began.

A quietly spoken man, Cheney proved his reputation as a skilled back-room operator rather than a political showman with a series of deadpan answers to reporters' questions in London . He said it was "inappropriate" to link the Middle East peace process with the war on terrorism. America's tariffs against imported steel were "not without controversy", he added.

As if to underline his reputation as the President's ventriloquist, Cheney displayed an unnerving habit of talking out of the side of his mouth as he tried to play down reports of the US considering nuclear strikes against Iran and Iraq.

"The notion that I have seen quoted in the press that somehow this means we are preparing pre-emptive strikes against seven countries ... I'd say that's a bit over the top," he said, straight-faced.

Cheney may, of course, consider this trip as something of a light relief, given the nature of attention he has been receiving back at home. He is an energy-industry veteran, having made his money outside politics heading Haliburton, America's largest supplier of drilling rigs and equipment, and in the wake of the Enron collapse he has been challenged to disclose the full list of industry lobbyists he consulted in drawing up a controversial national energy plan last year.

Cheney has been pressed to explain how often he met officials from the bankrupt Texas firm and other energy companies, and how influential they were in lobbying for tax breaks, looser Government regulations and new business opportunities.

Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, has identified 17 points in the energy plan that would have specifically benefited Enron and has applied continual pressure on the White House to explain itself.

Cheney has insisted full disclosure was out of the question. Revealing details of closed-door meetings, he said, "would make it virtually impossible for me to have confidential conversations.

"You just cannot accept that proposition without putting a chill over the ability of the President and Vice-President to receive unvarnished advice."

Although Cheney said his position on the issue had remained unchanged since accusations of undue influence on the energy plan were first levelled, the White House has ceded some ground and acknowledged that there were at least six meetings between Enron officials and the White House.

Cheney's relationships within the Bush Administration have also been under critical attention with rumours of a deep rift between him and Colin Powell. When Cheney was Defence Secretary the then General Powell was the Gulf War chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell has never been close to Cheney, complaining that his Gulf War political superior would go to the White House during the military build-up and report nothing back to him. Now Powell is seen as a dove to Cheney's hawk.

After his period in office with George Bush snr Cheney dropped out of political life for almost a decade and in the early stages of George W. Bush's presidential campaign very little smart money would have been on him for the Vice-Presidency.

He was then 59, being born in January, 1941, and had suffered ill health. He underwent quadruple bypass surgery after three mild heart attacks in 1998 and, in fact, his heart problems have continued since he took the vice presidential office.

In July last year he was fitted with a device known as an implantable cardioverter defibrillator to guard against a rapid heartbeat after finding that he was susceptible to such episodes.

During his period out of politics he described himself as "a recuperating politician" but he was drawn back into the Bush campaign and given the task of finding the right person for the number two job. That person turned out to be himself as he saw off younger and fitter rivals.

His own debut into politics had come at an early age, being appointed Gerald Ford's chief of staff at only 34. He studied politics at the University of Wyoming, having dropped out of Yale in his first year. His first Washington job was in the Nixon Administration as special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld, then a White House counsel. His appointment in Ford's Administration came only seven years later in 1974.

In 1979 he was elected to Congress for Wyoming, which was by then his family's home state, although he was born in Nebraska. His voting record reflects a set of conservative views, including firm opposition to abortion. He opposed bussing to achieve racial desegregation in schools and opposed gun control measures. He was a strong backer of President Reagan's Star Wars strategic defence initiative. As secretary of defence he described budget cuts which he oversaw as "very, very painful" and he has certainly had the chance to change that now.

His wife, Lynne, who was his teenage sweetheart and who he married in 1964, has similar views and has described herself as more conservative than her husband. She also achieved some prominence in American public life, serving from 1986 to 1993 as chairwoman of the National Endowment of the Humanities, a federal agency created in 1965 to enrich American cultural life.

She drew fire from liberals who thought she was not doing enough to protect the agency and she did, in fact, advocate the removal of government funding in favour of private endowments. But she surprised many by publicly opposing the removal of controversial Robert Mapplethorpe photographs from an NEH-funded exhibition.

She has published many books, with her most recent, Telling the Truth, analysing the effect of postmodernism on study in the humanities.

She was also reported to be working on completing America: A Patriotic Primer, an alphabet book intended for elementary-school children and their families.

Her husband is now busy spelling out his patriotic message to a much wider audience.

- INDEPENDENT with additional reporting by Herald staff.