Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter: An Accident?

L. Steele / February 12, 2006

On Saturday, February 11, 2006 Vice President Dick Cheney shot and wounded a man
during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and
chest with shotgun pellets. The incident is being called an accident. The vice president’s
office did not disclose the accident until the day after it happened.

What is the reason for the delay? Is there any reason to believe this is anything other
than an accident? The Bush administration has already shown disregard for the law,
countless times. They have already shown they feel they are above the law. With all of
the crimes they have already committed, what’s one more? Could this be an attempted
murder?

Most people will blow this off as just an accident, two friends on a hunting trip. Hunting
accidents do happen, but you have to ask yourself, would this be blown off so easily if it
was the other way around? The delay in reporting this incident could suggest that
Cheney needed time to meet with all witnesses and get their stories strait. This incident
also resembles a classic mafia style hit. Two old friends get together thinking they are
on a hunting trip, but somebody needs to be silenced.

The man that Cheney shot was Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin.
Whittington has contributed to the Bush campaign, but has also taken up cases that
may possibly be against the Bush agenda. He has been appointed to many committees
and commissions, including the Office of Patient Protection Executive Committee.
Whittington is outspoken about his doubts about the death penalty as it is applied in
Texas, especially in regards to defendants who are mentally retarded. He has also had
minor victories in eminent domain cases against local government. We already know the
Bush agenda is against patient protection, and all for the death penalty and government
having power to take your land. With Whittington being involved in campaign
contributions, is there a connection to a big scandal? Maybe not, supporting the
republican party does not absolutely mean you support the Bush administration.

The property where Whittington was shot is owned by Lobbyists Katherine Armstrong. In
2000 she pledged $100,000 to the Bush campaign. Is this the type of person that would
say anything incriminating about anyone within the Bush administration? Highly unlikely.

[Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another
hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail. Whittington shot a bird and
went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another
spot and discovered a second covey. Whittington “came up from behind the vice
president and the other hunter and didn’t signal them or indicate to them or announce
himself,” Armstrong said.“The vice president didn’t see him,” she continued. “The covey
flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by
God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.” Armstrong, owner of
the Armstrong Ranch where the accident occurred, said Whittington was bleeding and
Cheney was very apologetic.“It broke the skin,” she said of the shotgun pellets. “It
knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn’t get in
his eyes or anything like that.””Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical
people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we
would have been,” she said. “The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the
ambulance came.”] ~ CNN

This almost looks like Armstrong (a Lobbyist) got these two together for some type of
meeting. Why else were they all traveling together in the same car? Armstrong blames
Whittington for getting in the way, but says “he came up from behind the vice president”.
The story does not add up!

According to Armstrong Cheney and Whittington have hunted on the property before,
but never at the same time. This was the first time the two have hunted together. What
brought these two together? Somewhere these two have must have some type of
connection, but where?

In 1999 Texas Governor George W. Bush appointed a man to the state’s Funeral
Services Commission. That man was Harry Whittington. Whittington’s job was to try to
clean things up for the Funeral Services Commission because of allegations of
widespread corruption. Whittington has a history of digging deep into his projects, so
how far did he dig? What might he have found?

When Whittington took over, the commission was already investigating Houston-based
Service Corp. International, the nation’s largest funeral services operator. SCI was led
by a man named Robert Waltrip. Waltrip just so happened to be a large political
contributor and close friend to G. W. Bush. Allegations surfaced that Bush was
pressuring for an end to the investigation. Bush had been subpoenaed by attorneys for
Eliza May, the former executive director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
Bush filed an affidavit swearing he “had no conversations with [SCI] officials, agents, or
representatives concerning the investigation or any dispute arising from it.”The affidavit
also stated that Bush never spoke with the Texas Funeral Service Commission about
the investigation, and that Bush had “no personal knowledge of relevant facts of the
investigation nor do I have any personal knowledge of relevant facts concerning any
dispute arising from this investigation.” ~ Salon

If Whittington did happen to dig deep enough and stumble upon evidence that Bush had
played a role in trying to stop the investigation, he would have placed the president into
a bad situation. To find that Bush was in fact involved would mean that he had lied
under oath, among other offences.

The other possibility of course, is Whittington helped Bush cover his tracks.

In the world of politics, would this be a motive for attempted murder? Possibly. Perhaps it
all goes even deeper than this.

Still, we can not rule out the possibility that this really was an accident, but what would
cause Dick Cheney to open fire on a friend approaching from behind? Accident or not,
Cheney taught Whittington one of two valuable lessons. Forget what you know, don’t dig
too deep. Or, Don’t go hunting with some trigger happy idiot!