XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON NOV 21, 2005 21:25:35 ET XXXXX

CNN MARKS CHENEY: NETWORK FLASHES 'X' OVER VP'S FACE DURING LIVE SPEECH

**Exclusive**

At 11:04:45 AM ET Monday CNN was airing Vice President Dick Cheney's speech live from the American Enterprise Institute in Washington -- when a large black 'X' repeatedly flashed over the vice president's face!

The 'X' over Cheney's face appeared each time less than a second, creating an odd subliminal effect.

As this DRUDGE REPORT screen capture reveals, while one 'X' flashed over Cheney's face CNN ran a headline at the bottom of its screen: "CHENEY: I DO NOT BELIEVE IT IS WRONG TO CRITICIZE."

One top White House source expressed concern about what was aired over CNN.

"Is someone in Atlanta trying to tell us something?"

A CNN spokesman did not return repeated calls late Monday night.

Developing...

"The blogosphere is shaping up to be something like a media rapid-reaction force. Unfortunately, as the old guard errs on the side of caution, we sometimes err on the side of exuberance. That what happened at CNN is an interesting story is not in question, but an important story? No. Hopefully the blogosphere will be as quick to discard this story as they were to embrace it in the first place."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President, Richard Cheney, is at the center of controversy over the decision to invade Iraq, the alleged torture of terrorism suspects and secret CIA prisons around the world, but like the eye of the storm, he remains unperturbed.

The point man for the administration of US President George W. Bush which is caught up in Iraq, Cheney is leading a counteroffensive branding as dishonest anybody who demands the withdrawal of the US military from Iraq.

His tactics includes personal attacks, a proven method from past election campaigns. Together with Bush, he often plays the role of a "bad cop," says Eric Davis, professor of political sciences from Middlebury University.

"I think as long as Bush listens to him, his power is not threatened," said the expert who sees Cheney as a "hatchet man" inside a government whose "options in Iraq are narrower and narrower."

Cheney "is taking deflected criticism for Bush," points out Stephen Hess, a political science expert with the Brookings Institution in Washington.

For about a month, the Democratic opposition has been denouncing the Bush administration and the vice president for its lies and "manipulations" of intelligence reports to persuade the public that the Iraq war was justified.

Democrats believe the decision to go to war was made before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Criticism has intensified since late October when Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby was indicted for perjury and resigned amid a scandal over the outing of a CIA agent in the press.

Cheney's popularity is currently lower than Bush's (less than 40 percent), and for several weeks his name has been linked to the defense of torture as a tool in the counterterrorism campaign.

Former CIA director Stansfield Turner on Thursday accused the vice president of supervising the politics of torture with regard to terrorism suspects...