Chicago Tribune Wants Answers From Dick Cheney

How long until the conservative blogosphere calls the Chicago Tribune a part of the left wing media? The Tribune is demanding answers from Dick Cheney:

Answers, Mr. Cheney

Vice President Dick Cheney is among the most secretive members of the Bush administration. But he’s been in his bunker long enough. It’s time for him to answer some questions–and not in the friendly venue of Fox News.

Given the allegations about his role in the surreptitious disclosure of classified information related to the war in Iraq, Americans have a right to hear his story. The best way to get it is by an unscripted news conference in which the vice president confronts all the questions that have been raised. For him to remain silent amid the current turmoil suggests that he–or the president–has something to hide.

Cheney has long been suspected of involvement in revealing the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame–whose husband, Joseph Wilson, had publicly disputed the Bush administration on Saddam Hussein’s supposed attempts to obtain uranium for nuclear weapons. The vice president’s former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges over conversations he had with reporters about Plame.

Last week, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald filed a brief that says Libby also leaked secret information from a CIA report on Iraq. According to this account, Libby says the vice president instructed him to tell a reporter that a key finding of a 2002 intelligence assessment was that Iraq was “vigorously trying to procure” uranium from Africa. The brief also says Libby was told by Cheney that President Bush had personally authorized the disclosure of this classified material.