CHENEY SHOOTS PROSECUTOR

NRA gives VP historic "No Safety" rifle

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a 78-year-old man while the two of them were hunting on a ranch in southern Texas, Cheney's office said.

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride confirmed that Cheney spun quickly, 180 degrees, to fire at quail that had just been released and was unaware that "anybody was behind me." The Vice President missed the birds and inadvertently peppered Harry Whittington with shotgun pellets, striking one side of his body. Ambulance attendants identified it as his front side, including his face and head. The incident occurred around 5:30 pm on Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch, where Mr. Cheney is an occasional visitor.

Whittington, a well known semi-retired attorney from Chicago, had long been mentioned as a potential Special Prosecutor in the CIA leak probe involving Cheney’s former Chief of Staff “Scooter” Libby.

In court documents released last week, Libby told a federal grand jury that he disclosed classified National Intelligence Estimates to reporters as part of a campaign by the Bush administration to discredit critics of so-called “intelligence” used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said in the documents sent to Libby’s lawyers that "Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors."

Whittington, a long time associate of Fitzgerald has often mentioned as a likely Special Prosecutor in the event the leak investigation expands to include “higher-ups” in the White House.

Both Fitzgerald and Whittington are Republicans and both have given the maximum amounts allowable to the Bush-Cheney campaigns. However, both men have long be considered unwaveringly ethical and “untouchable” according to White House records released as part of the investigation.

According to the local newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Whittington had been for scheduled yesterday’s hunt since September 2005, Mr. Cheney was booked in just one day before.

Local police, the Texas Rangers, Federal Marshals and the Secret Service are treating the shooting as an accident. However, Department of Environmental Conservation officers issued a citation to Mr. Whittington for “following to close,“ the newspaper reported.