Clinton slams US secrecy-mania

2006-02-19 21:15

Washington - Former president Bill Clinton said on Sunday that the Bush government's "enormous penchant for secrecy" sparked the strong reaction to vice-president Dick Cheney's shooting mishap.

"We have people quite often who are shot in quail incidents, so I didn't feel the need to get into the pile-on," said Clinton on ABC television's Good Morning America.

Cheney has been criticised for not disclosing the shooting on February 11 of Texas lawyer Harry Whittington until the following day.

Cheney accidentally hit Whittington in the face, neck and chest with birdshot while both men were quail hunting on a Texas ranch.

"I think the White House should have said something about it sooner," said Clinton.

Cheney's ratings already low

"I think that it's got a little more light than it would have because the administration has an enormous penchant for secrecy, for not telling anybody anything about anything."

The shooting had little impact on public opinion about the job done by Cheney, which was already low.

A Time magazine poll found 29%t of those surveyed approved of the job done by Cheney, close to the 32% approval for the vice-president in November.

President George W Bush said last week that Cheney had handled the situation "just fine".

Bush also said critics were drawing "the wrong conclusion about a tragic accident" by saying it depicted the White House as overly secretive.

- AP