His speech to the Council for National Policy, the group with the unknown membership and unknown agenda, is an affront to Americans. He is an elected official, speaking, we assume, as an elected official, to a group that can best be described as a "secret combination."

Why the need for secrecy? The American people have the right to know who's influencing our elected officials and with what agenda. The vice president is clearly operating below the radar and for what nefarious purpose this time, we can only imagine.

Those to whom Cheney will be speaking who say they are for a "strong defense" better be backing it up by sending their children off to the Middle East. A solid guess is that they are, instead, seeking government contracts for war-related materiel. The council, which claims to support traditional Western values, is apparently deciding in private what values are traditional and which ones need defending.

Government is supposed to be by the people and for the people, not kept from the people. Shame on the council and on Mr. Cheney.

Beth Young

Bountiful