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Records on Cheney's shooting incident to be released

The National Archives is preparing to release a set of White House records relating to the 2006 incident in which Vice President Dick Cheney shot one of his hunting partners during an outing in Texas. A slew of official photos of Cheney's activities on September 11, 2001 is also slated to go public.

The volume of papers actually pertaining to the shooting of Texas attorney Harry Whittington is unclear. A notice issued by the National Archives this week said 267 pages of records were designated for opening in their entirety and five pages in part. However, because the Archives' procedures call for archivists to process whole folders of records regardless of whether all the material is on-topic, much of the information to be released appears to be unrelated to the shooting.

The records come from what are called "miscellaneous outbox" files maintained by Cheney's office. They appear to consist largely of news clippings sometimes accompanied by notes from staff, as well as routine letters to the vice president.

About 50 pages from the files are to be withheld from public release at least for now. It seems unlikely the papers set for release contain any particularly sensitive advice, since such information can be withheld until 12 years after the end of a president's service. For President George W. Bush's White House, this protection does not expire until January 2021.

The Archives is also planning to release about 3500 official photos, depicting Cheney or aide David Addington, who served as the VP's legal counsel and, later, chief of staff. Many of the photos were taken on September 11, 2001, including some in the rarely-seen bunker under the White House, also known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. A total of 689 related photos are being withheld from release for reasons that were not disclosed.

Under a law passed last year, President Barack Obama and representatives for Bush and Cheney have 60 business days to assert any executive privilege objections they may have to the planned disclosures. That review can be extended once, for 30 business days.

Whittington was hospitalized after the 2006 shooting and reportedly suffered heart problems due to being peppered with birdshot in what Cheney described as an accident. The incident generated some suspicion because it wasn't disclosed to the press until the day after the shooting and then was revealed to a local newspaper rather than national news outlets.

CORRECTION (Friday, 4:28 PM): This post has been updated to reflect that Whittington was hit with birdshot, not buckshot, as he, Cheney and others were hunting quail at the time of the incident.