U.S. Knew of Threats as Cheney Visited Base

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NATO and American forces knew that a suicide bomber was at large in the Bagram area before the suicide bomb attack on Tuesday that killed 23 people at the main gate of the United States air base where Vice President Dick Cheney was staying, a NATO spokesman said Wednesday. But despite the vice president’s presence, the Afghan police chief in the area said he had not been informed of the possible threat.

“We know for a fact that there has been recent intelligence to suggest that there was the threat of a bombing in the Bagram area,” the spokesman, Col. Tom Collins, said at a news briefing in Kabul.

“It is clear there are suicide bombers cells operating in this country,” he said. “There are some operating in the city of Kabul and, as our intelligence suggests, they had the capability in the Bagram area.”

The Afghan police chief of Bagram district, Muhammad Salem Ehsas, said Wednesday that he had been unaware of any threat of a suicide bomber in the area, suggesting a lack of coordination between the security forces on the ground even while Mr. Cheney was present.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/world/asia/01afghan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin