WORLD : Cheney Queries AF on Panama

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has asked the Air Force to explain why it incorrectly told him that both 2,000-pound bombs dropped on Panama by F-117A Stealth fighters had hit their targets, the Pentagon said today.

Cheney learned that one of the two bombs dropped in the Dec. 20 invasion fell “way off target” only after making inquiries to the Air Force based on a reporter’s photographs of the bomb craters, Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said.

“I think the secretary was initially told (by the Air Force) in a good-faith manner that both bombs had hit their targets,” Williams said when asked at the Pentagon briefing whether the Air Force had deliberately lied to Cheney.

“I don’t believe there was any--as far as I can tell--any intent to mislead the secretary,” Williams said.

Immediately after the U.S. invasion, Cheney had defended the use of the high-technology F-117As Stealth fighters in the attack, saying the pinpoint bombing accuracy of the $106-million planes probably saved both American and Panamanian lives.

Two F-117As were assigned to drop a 2,000-pound bomb each near the military barracks at Rio Hato to stun the Panamanian Defense Forces before a parachute drop by U.S. Army Rangers.

Williams said one of the bombs was on target, hitting about 55 yards from the barracks, but the other was “way off target” and the miss, “as far as we can tell, is (due to) pilot error.”