Cheney takes in sights of Rome
By John King
CNN Senior White House Correspondent
 |
Cheney and his wife (left) inside the Villa Borghese Gallery.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
Vice President Dick Cheney at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
|
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
|
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.
Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
|
|
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney began a day of sightseeing in Rome Sunday with a 15-minute walk to Borghese Palace, a 17th century museum built to house the art collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese -- a nephew of Pope Paul V.
Lynne Cheney accompanied her husband, as did their daughter, Liz Cheney, who is a State Department official whose projects include promoting political reforms in the Middle East.
U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler and his wife, Betty, were also with the Cheneys, who are staying at the ambassador's residence during their three-day visit to Italy.
The vice president was scheduled to travel by motorcade, but instead decided to walk on a chilly Rome morning. He called the 15-minute trek from the ambassador's residence "a good walk" and "a nice way to start the day -- a beautiful walk through Rome."
The vice president stopped briefly for photographers as he was greeted at the museum entrance, but headed inside when a reporter asked if he had any reaction to Secretary of State Colin Powell's weekend statement that it was an "open question" whether Iraq had banned weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion. (Full story)
"Nice to see you all," Cheney said as he headed into the museum, the first stop on a day of sightseeing.
Powell was reacting to comments from David Kay, the U.S. point man for the weapons search in Iraq, who is stepping down and who said in an weekend interview that he now does not believe Iraq was actively producing weapons of mass destruction in the 1990s, as alleged by the Bush administration in making its case for war.
U.S. officials say it is possible their intelligence was inaccurate, but they also stress that it was the consensus view of several Western nations that Iraq had such weapons, and that when President Bush made his decision to go to war he was acting on the best available intelligence at the time and reports in which the CIA said it had "high confidence" in its findings that Saddam Hussein did have banned weapons.
Cheney meets Monday and Tuesday with Italy's president, prime minister and with Pope John Paul II. His visit also includes a visit to the allied World War II landing site at Nettuno, 30 miles south of Rome, and two stops at U.S. military installations in Italy.
