WORLD : Cheney Seeks Explanation of Bombing Error in 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.