Cheney: No daughters as human shields

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WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's office denied reports on Tuesday that either of his daughters was even considering becoming a human shield in Iraq.

"Neither daughter even has plans to travel to that region, let alone Iraq," a member of the vice president's staff told United Press International in Washington. Elizabeth, 36, is married with three children in Washington, where she is deputy assistant secretary for Near-East affairs at the State Department. Mary, 34, has just completed her master's degree of business administration at Denver University.

Reports earlier on Tuesday suggested Cheney was on his way to Jordan to dissuade one of his daughters from joining the so-called human shield volunteers in Iraq. The shields are civilians, usually foreigners, who place themselves around hospitals, schools and other installations in an effort to keep opposing military forces from targeting them.

The United States has reiterated that it does not target civilian facilities and indeed has no plans to during its operations in Iraq.

When asked where the daughters were now, the staff member said, "Both the vice president and his daughters are in the United States."

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Amman, the Jordanian capital, also denied that Cheney was on his way to Jordan: "The embassy has no information that the U.S. vice president will arrive in Jordan Tuesday to convince one of his daughters not to travel to Iraq to join human shields opposed to war," he said.