Via AP:
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing at least 14 people and wounding a dozen more. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.
Cheney’s spokeswoman said he was fine, and the vice president later met with President Hamid Karzai in the capital, Kabul, before leaving the country.
There were conflicting reports on the death toll. Provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said 20 people were killed, while NATO said initial reports indicated three fatalities, including a U.S. soldier, a South Korean coalition soldier and a U.S. government contractor whose nationality wasn’t immediately known. NATO said 27 people also were wounded.
It was unclear why there was such a large discrepancy in the reports.
Associated Press reporters at the scene said they had seen the bodies of at least 12 people carried in black body bags and wooden coffins from near the base into a market area where hundreds of Afghans had gathered to mourn.
Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to the vice president. “He wasn’t near the site of the explosion,” Mitchell said. “He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion.”
However, a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack.
“We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base,” Ahmadi told AP telephone from an undisclosed location. “The attacker was trying to reach Cheney.”
Does this mean the US would be justified in targeting the terrorist support networks in Warzistan? Captain Ed thinks so:
The Bush administration sent Cheney along with high-level intelligence officers in order to conduct a presentation of the evidence we have collected of terrorist activity in Waziristan. Reportedly, we identified locations and support networks for al-Qaeda and the Taliban forces that will conduct their spring offensive in the coming weeks. Identification of these sites makes it very difficult for Musharraf to shrug off our warning, as does the high level of the visit. It’s the final warning to get something done, or suffer us getting it done for him.
In fact, that point may already have been crossed. With the Taliban taking responsibility for the attack and with Cheney as its target, the US may determine that those camps present a clear and present danger to the US. That would allow President Bush to launch an attack on the camps even though they are in Pakistani territory. That move would be constitutional and necessarily limited, and since it targets al-Qaeda, would likely generate little dissent from Congress. I’d expect some members of the new Congressional leadership to ask why we hadn’t attacked them before this assassination attempt.
Stay tuned …
Update: Michelle Malkin documents the far left’s reaction to the news that Cheney is ok.
Memeorandum has links galore to news stories about this and the blogosphere’s responses.
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I’m certainly glad the vice president is safe.
I don’t understand why the Taliban took credit for a failure. It is now more likely than before that we’ll simply do Pakistan’s job for them.
I also wonder why Vice was the one sent to Pakistan in the first place: is that not the job for the Secretary of Defense? Quite frankly, I do not like the thought of the person who’s “a heartbeat away from the presidency” making these sorts of trips.
Comment by Leslie @ 2/27/2007 - 1:24 pm
Liberal Hate is what I do not understand.
Yes, I said it, Liberal Hate.
Go into the cesspool that you call DU or KOS, and you will see it, look at huffington, by the way, Michelle Malkin has an Update, a linked PDF file someone did up of Huffington before they closed it down.
When are people going to understand that the person you hoped would die is an AMERICAN?
When are people going to understand that you can disagree, that you can not like a person, but to actively hope for the death of a person because he/she is a republican, democrat, independent, black, white, green, blue - that this shit don’t matter, they are AMERICANS. You are actively hoping for an AMERICAN to die?
What the hell is wrong with these people?
You don’t just “live” in America, if you are a citizen, you are part of America, you are an AMERICAN - it doesn’t matter if your white, black, republican, democrat, christian or atheist - your an AMERICAN, and for what these people talk like, you wish for one of your fellow citizens to die.
These are sick and twisted individuals and I am quite certain this is what makes and drives the left now.
While I do not agree with many democrats, or even global warming debaters, or pro-abortion people, I would never, NEVER hope they would die or be sorry that someone didn’t kill them.
Sick individuals.
Comment by sanity @ 2/27/2007 - 3:25 pm
Very true sanity, but are we really surprised? I know I’m not.
Comment by NC Cop @ 2/27/2007 - 5:03 pm
Leslie, I’m slightly surprised the KOS kids didn’t try to take credit.
Comment by forest hunter @ 2/27/2007 - 6:24 pm
Well said, sanity. But don’t question their patriotism!
Comment by Great White Rat @ 2/27/2007 - 7:13 pm
I will always question their patriotism. Anyone who would openly desire the death of their President or Government Leader is not playing with a full deck. This is the kind of immature garbage that a 5 year old screams when they don’t get their way. How can we not expect this from some of the same people that had to have a protest march when George Bush won the presidency in 2004.
Here is the definition of the word patriotism per answer.com:
I don’t see how wanting the death of the Vice President, which some have been wanting and laughing about his heart for several years now, is even remotely patriotic. Our founding Fathers would be slapping these lowlife idiots in the face and tossing their asses out of the country. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 2/27/2007 - 9:05 pm