Cheney Involved Despite Remote Location

Nov. 30, 2001 -- Vice President Dick Cheney says he's fully involved in the wartime decision-making process, despite frequently being apart from other senior presidential advisers — a security precaution he says will likely continue indefinitely as the war against terrorism proceeds.

"I'm in constant touch with the White House, have several video conferences a day with my own staff, with NSC [the National Security Council], or [National Security Adviser] Condi Rice, [Secretary of State] Colin Powell, [Defense Secretary] Don Rumsfeld, and with the president," Cheney said.

In an interview with ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer for Primetime Thursday, Cheney added that the United States is bearing down on Osama bin Laden. And he used precedents from American history to help justify a plan to try suspected terrorists by military tribunals.

Bearing Down on Bin Laden; Saddam Next?

With the volume of U.S. intelligence increasing, and bin Laden's possible hiding spaces decreasing, Cheney said he is fairly sure bin Laden remains in Afghanistan, possibly near his known cave hideouts at Tora Bora.

"It's an area he's familiar with," Cheney said. "He operated there back during the war against the Soviets in the '80s. He's got a large number of fighters with him probably, a fairly secure personal security force."

The United States has been bombing and searching on the ground for suspected bin Laden or al Qaeda hideouts.

"He may depart for other territory, but that's not quite as easy as it would have been a few months ago," Cheney said. "Anybody who contemplates providing sanctuary for bin Laden at this point has to keep in mind what happened to the Taliban when they did that."

Cheney said U.S. successes may act as a deterrent for future would-be terror plotters.

"A good offense is the best defense," he said.

Cheney said the war on terror would likely be a long war, but he would not comment on speculation that the United States might make Iraq a target after the refusal of its leader, Saddam Hussein, to allow renewed inspections of weapons facilities and stockpiles.

"I don't think it takes a genius to figure out that this guy … continues to be a significant potential problem for the region, for the United States, for everybody with interests in the area," Cheney said. "I would not want to speculate on what the future might hold, but we do think that the appropriate thing for him to do is to comply with the U.N. Security Council resolutions, and allow those inspectors to come back in."

Abdel-Rahman Might Face Tribunal

Cheney called "credible" Northern Alliance claims that they have captured Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a top al Qaeda official and son of Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiracy to blow up New York landmarks.

"We don't have final, absolute confirmation on our side yet, but I think it's probably fairly credible," Cheney said. ABCNEWS later confirmed that Abdel-Rahman had indeed been captured.

Cheney said if Abdel-Rahman is indeed in custody, the United States would be interested in questioning him about al Qaeda activities and intelligence. The vice president also said Abdel-Rahman might be the type of senior al Qaeda official to be tried by an American military tribunal.

"The president will have to make a decision on each case," Cheney said. "But clearly a high-ranking al Qaeda official captured in Afghanistan, who's been involved in the organization, is exactly the type of individual that the tribunals were established for."

Despite outcries from civil libertarians, Cheney called the tribunals a "perfectly reasonable and responsible way to go," given the nature of the terrorist threat. He said military tribunals were used by the United States in the Revolutionary and Mexican wars and World War II, and to try the assassins of President Lincoln after the Civil War.

"We also need to be able to protect and preserve sources of intelligence," Cheney said, claiming bin Laden had a history of exploiting intelligence leaks to plot his attacks, and saying tribunals would keep such intelligence secret.

"These people are not going to be mistreated," Cheney said. "They are going to be treated like the unlawful combatants that they are."

Life in Cheney’s ‘Cave’

Cheney described his secure hideout, dubbed "the cave" by some pundits, as both a fully wired command center where can work with his staff and via video conference with other government officials, and as a location where he is able to spend the night in comfort.

He added that he enjoys jokes made at his expense and about "the cave," and that if his staff doesn't brief him on the jokes each day, his daughters do. He said he particularly enjoys regular Cheney impersonations on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

"I loved the one where I was in the cave in Kandahar, Afghanistan; I thought that was superb," Cheney said. "I enjoyed the show very much, and he's got it down. He's doing pretty well. He's not there yet, but he's doing well in terms of his impersonations."

Cheney said he is likely to continue to spend significant amounts of time there, or at other locations away from President Bush, even if Osama bin Laden gets captured or killed.

"It's entirely possible, assuming we're successful at getting bin Laden, that the al Qaeda network, as an organization, would still be in place," Cheney said. He said al Qaeda is "in some 50 or 60 countries around the world. And it may be some considerable period of time here before we can relax and say that there's no longer a threat to the United States.

"The main purpose of [staying away from Bush] is again to make certain that we don't allow ourselves into a situation where we both could become a target," Cheney added. "That doesn't mean we will always be apart, but it does mean that on those occasions when we do get together, we don't announce it. So it's more a matter of being unpredictable."

No Safe Harbor for Holidays

Just as the danger to the executive branch remains, Cheney noted the American public should remain on alert for potential terror attacks at any time — as much as he'd like to be able to assure Americans of a carefree holiday season.

"I'd like to be able to say to everybody that you can relax at 3 o'clock next Tuesday," Cheney said. "I can't say that. We continue to do everything we can to safeguard against another attack, but people do have to remain alert, they do have to be sensitive to what's going on around them and use caution."