An ultra-secret conservative group — so secret that members don’t even use the group’s name in communications — will feature Vice President Dick Cheney as a speaker at a meeting in Utah today. "Cheney will address the fall meeting of the Council for National Policy, a group whose self-described mission is to promote ‘a free-enterprise system, a strong national defense and support for traditional Western values," according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.
Founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye, the co-author of the popular post-apocalyptic Christian-themed Left Behind books, the group holds confidential meetings three times a year attended by a small but powerful cadre of top conservatives. "The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting," one of the group’s rules reads, according to a New York Times profile of the organization in 2004.
Vice President Dick Cheney’s plane has landed and he has met with a small group of dignitaries and wellwishers en route to an address to a super-secret,conservative policy group. Air Force 2, a blue-and-white 757, landed about noon and Cheney stepped out to shake hands and briefly chat with a line of supporters, among them Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and family members. Cheney’s trip is to be a short one. He is making no public appearances.
The purpose of the trip - which is privately funded - is to speak to the Council for National Policy, a conservative group that is permitting no press coverage. The four-day event that began Thursday is being held at a downtown Salt Lake City Hotel.
