Powell accuses Cheney of using book for ‘cheap shots’

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has accused former vice-president Dick Cheney of taking “cheap shots” at him and others in a new book.

Mr Powell, speaking on television yesterday, said: “What really sort of got my attention was this way in which he characterised it, [the book] it’s going to cause heads to explode.”

“That’s quite a visual. It’s the kind of headline I would expect to come out of a gossip columnist, or you might see one of the supermarket tabloids write.”

He added: “I think Dick overshot the runway.”

Mr Cheney writes that he thinks Mr Powell tried to undermine president George Bush by criticising the administration to people outside the government.

Mr Powell said Mr Cheney is almost condescending in his remarks about Mr Powell’s successor, Condoleezza Rice, noting references in the book in which Ms Rice was described as doing things “tearfully”.