Despite his hardline conservatism, Cheney became isolated from Republican leadership over his condemnation of President Donald Trump, whom he labeled the republic's greatest threat. His career concluded when he supported Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024, demonstrating how the Republican Party's populist shift had rejected his traditional conservatism. Heart disease affected Cheney throughout his adult life, yet he survived multiple cardiac episodes and lived years after his 2012 heart transplant, which he called "the gift of life itself," CNN reported.

On September 11, 2001, Cheney occupied the White House while Bush traveled. Witnessing the second aircraft strike New York's World Trade Center transformed him into someone committed to avenging al-Qaida's assault and imposing American authority across the Middle East. "At that moment, you knew this was a deliberate act. This was a terrorist act," he told CNN's John King in 2002. Operating from a fortified shelter beneath the White House, Cheney managed the traumatized nation's response, issuing the directive authorizing military forces to destroy additional hijacked jets approaching the White House or Capitol. The September 11 attacks triggered American intervention in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban, though al-Qaida commander Osama bin Laden escaped. Cheney then advocated expanding military action to Iraq and dictator Saddam Hussein, whose forces he had helped expel from Kuwait during the first Gulf conflict as President George H.W. Bush's defense chief.

The vice president's aggressive declarations regarding Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction, supposed al-Qaida connections, and intention to arm terrorists significantly established justification for the 2003 invasion. Post-conflict investigations demonstrated Cheney and fellow officials overstated or mischaracterized defective intelligence concerning capabilities Iraq ultimately lacked. Among his most discredited assertions, that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta encountered Iraqi intelligence in Prague, never received confirmation. Yet Cheney maintained in 2005 that officials operated on "the best available intelligence," and argued any claim the data was "distorted, hyped, or fabricated" remained "utterly false."

The conflicts additionally guided America down troubling avenues including "enhanced interrogations" of terrorism suspects that opponents condemned as torture, though Cheney maintained methods such as waterboarding remained appropriate. He championed detaining suspects without trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a measure critics characterized as offending fundamental American principles, according to CNN.

Cheney departed office despised by Democrats with a 31% approval rating, as measured by the Pew Research Center. Throughout his remaining years, he voiced no remorse, convinced he had performed necessary actions responding to an assault that claimed nearly 2,800 lives and initiated almost 20 years of overseas conflicts. "I would do it again in a minute," Cheney stated when confronted by a 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee investigation that determined enhanced interrogation techniques as savage and ineffectual. Regarding Iraq, he informed said in 2015: "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now," according to CNN.

During his final years, Cheney surfaced as an intense Trump opponent, despite backing him in 2016. Trump's refusal to acknowledge his 2020 electoral loss and the January 6 uprising prompted Cheney to protest publicly. His daughter, then-Representative Liz Cheney, sacrificed her Republican career to challenge Trump following his effort to reverse the election outcome. During a 2022 video for his daughter's unsuccessful primary fight, Dick Cheney stared into the camera beneath a cowboy hat and stated: "In our nation's 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump," adding "He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it. He knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know." Richard Bruce Cheney was born January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and met his future wife Lynne Vincent in Casper, Wyoming. After struggling at Yale and receiving two drunk driving arrests, he received an ultimatum from Lynne, who had "made it clear she wasn't interested in marrying a lineman for the county," he told The New Yorker. "I buckled down and applied myself. Decided it was time to make something of myself," according to CNN.

Cheney commenced his Washington career as a Nixon aide, then became Donald Rumsfeld's deputy White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford before succeeding him in 1975. He won Wyoming's House seat in 1978, serving six terms and advancing to minority whip with an extremely conservative record. President George H. W. Bush selected him as defense secretary in 1989, calling him a "trusted friend, advisor," and he managed the 1989 Panama invasion and 1991 Operation Desert Storm. During Bill Clinton's presidency, Cheney joined Halliburton as CEO. When the younger Bush sought office, Cheney led the running mate search and ultimately joined the ticket himself. "During the process, I came to the conclusion that the selector was the best person to be selected," Bush stated in the 2020 CNN documentary "President in Waiting."

Cheney's health issues began with a 1978 heart attack at 37, followed by three more in 1984, 1988, and November 2000. He stated he'd be the "the first to step down" if unable to fulfill his duties. After a fifth heart attack in 2010, he obtained a heart pump before his 2012 transplant. Following office, Cheney wrote two memoirs and became a vocal Obama critic. Years later, he condemned his own party's reaction to the Capitol assault, returning to the Capitol with Liz Cheney on January 6, 2021's one-year commemoration. "I am deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the January 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation," he stated. Democrats welcomed the former Republican vice president, with Nancy Pelosi embracing him in a scene that illustrated how Trump's transformation of American politics made former adversaries discover shared purpose defending democracy. "It's not leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years," Cheney stated at the Capitol in 2022. He endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024 due to the "duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution," cautioning Trump "can never be trusted with power again," though Trump secured the presidency months later, CNN reported.

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Afghanistan's new foreign minister said Tuesday that the Taliban governing the country remain committed to preventing militants from using their territory to launch attacks. He refused, however, to say whether the country's new rulers would create a more inclusive government.

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Without other political factions and women serving in the government, the Taliban appear unlikely to win international recognition as the legitimate leaders of Afghanistan. Without such recognition, the Afghan state will be unable to tap billions of its funds frozen abroad, leaving it virtually bankrupt at a time of immense humanitarian need.

The Taliban received sharp criticism last week after they announced a cabinet made up entirely of men from their movement, including several on international terror lists. Taliban leaders had previously promised broader representation.

On Tuesday, Amir Khan Mutaqi, a longtime Taliban negotiator named as foreign minister, appeared at his first news conference since becoming a member of the interim government. He gave little indication of whether the Taliban would bend to international pressure.

Asked if the Taliban would include women or ethnic and religious minorities in the government, Mutaqi replied, "We will decide in time."

He underscored that the current government was ruling on an interim basis. He said that when a permanent government is formed, "we will take into account what the people want." He would not give a timetable for the establishment of a permanent government.

"We are taking everything step by step. We have not said how long this cabinet will last," Mutaqi said.

After the withdrawal of Western troops and the Taliban's sudden return to power last month, the US and its allies have used money, potential recognition, and warnings of isolation to pressure the group to refrain from a repeat of their repressive rule in the 1990s. At that time, the Taliban governed according to a strict interpretation of Islamic law that included severe restrictions on women and minorities.

Mutaqi repeatedly said other countries must not interfere in Afghanistan's domestic affairs.

However, the foreign minister did confirm for the first time the new cabinet's intention to honor an agreement reached with the United States last year.

Under the deal, which paved the way for the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban promised to break ties with al-Qaida and other terrorist groups and ensure they do not threaten other countries from the movement's territory.

"We will not allow anyone or any groups to use our soil against any other countries," Mutaqi said.

While ruling Afghanistan during the late 1990s, the Taliban sheltered al-Qaida and its chief, Osama bin Laden. Their refusal to hand over bin Laden and other al-Qaida members after the Sept. 11 terror attacks prompted the US to launch a military assault that ousted the Taliban and led to a 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Many experts remain skeptical the Taliban have broken ties with al-Qaida since they reached the 2020 withdrawal deal with the Trump administration. Nevertheless, al-Qaida has been significantly weakened, and Washington has made clear its top priority is preventing Islamic State attacks from Afghanistan.

The Taliban have battled the Islamic State group since its emergence in Afghanistan in 2014. A burgeoning IS affiliate has claimed responsibility for most recent attacks, including the horrific bombing outside the Kabul airport that killed 13 US service personnel and 169 Afghans during last month's chaotic evacuations.

Still, US Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, who leads the Defense Intelligence Agency, said at a national security summit Tuesday that al-Qaida could begin to threaten the United States from Afghanistan within one to two years, echoing warnings that were issued before the US withdrawal.

Meanwhile, the broader terms of the world's relationship with the Taliban remain unsettled one month after they swept into Kabul on Aug. 15 and Afghanistan's US-backed president, Ashraf Ghani, fled the presidential palace.

There also appear to be divisions within the Taliban over the next steps. Some leaders are said to be more open to compromise, while others insist on resolute Taliban domination.

The makeup of the Taliban government poses a dilemma for the United Nations as it prepares to open a new session of the UN General Assembly. Several interim ministers, including Mutaqi, Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund, and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani are on the UN's so-called black list of international terrorists and terrorist financiers.

Haqqani is also wanted by the FBI for questioning in connection with attacks in the Afghan capital over the last two decades. As interim interior minister, Haqqani oversees Afghanistan's police and has already called former officers back to work. While some have returned, including most traffic police, many are reluctant.

Mutaqi urged the UN to remove the Taliban ministers from the watch list. "The list has no logic," he said.

When the Taliban last ruled, the UN refused to recognize their government and instead gave Afghanistan's seat to the previous, warlord-dominated government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who eventually was killed by a suicide bomber in 2011. It was Rabbani's government that brought bin Laden to Afghanistan from Sudan in 1996.

This time around, it is unclear whether the seat will be reserved for a representative of Ghani's government. The president's sudden departure shocked the political leadership in Kabul, including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, the government's chief negotiator, which was still negotiating with the Taliban to form an interim government.

The governments of the US and other countries promised millions in new humanitarian aid for the UN to spend in Afghanistan as the country faces increasing hunger and economic collapse, but they suggested their willingness to do so in the future could depend on the actions of the Taliban.

During the second day of tough congressional questioning about the Afghanistan withdrawal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration would hold the Taliban to their promises to keep Afghanistan from being used as a base for terrorist attacks once again.

Mutaqi said the Taliban-led government sought good relations with foreign nations but insisted they must not interfere in its affairs. He also called for international donors to send more aid and international banking institutions to continue their projects in Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan is poor. It needs all the help" the world can give, Mutaqi said, promising that foreign aid would be distributed without corruption.

He also said that all Afghan Embassies operating abroad were told to continue operations. He promised Afghans would be allowed to leave the country and said it was the job of the Taliban government to provide passports to its citizens.

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The son of Osama bin Laden, the slain leader of the al-Qaida terrorist group said he hopes to visit Israel in an interview with the Israeli media.

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Omar bin Laden, 40, the youngest of Osama's sons, was expected to be his father's heir and take on the leadership of al-Qaida but turned down the offer. He said he felt "shame and horror" toward his father for the crimes he committed during his life.

He said after the devastation of the Sept. 11 attacks orchestrated by his father on the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon outside Washington, and in an open field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania that "it was hard for me to believe that he had the ability to organize such a thing. That day changed our lives forever, and it was very hard to continue to live afterwards. During these years of loss and pain, I was forced to come to terms with the truth about my father."

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An artist, Omar bin Laden lives in Normandy, France. He longs to visit the United States and Israel, noting that his wife, whose maternal side of the family is Jewish and originally from Israel, received an offer to give lectures on peace at Israeli universities.

"I know that it's a beautiful country, and many people in it want peace with the Palestinians," he said. "I know that since 1948, the Palestinians have been living alongside the Jewish nation. We believe that the world needs to live as one and that neighbors from every religion can live alongside each other in peace."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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A statement issued in US President Donald Trump's name gave no further details, such as when Hamza bin Laden was killed or how the United States had confirmed his death. Administration officials would provide no more information beyond the three-sentence statement from the White House.

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American officials have said there are indications that the CIA, and not the US military, conducted the strike. The CIA declined to comment on whether the agency was involved.

The White House statement said that Hamza bin Laden's death "not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father but undermines important operational activities of the group." It said that Osama bin Laden's son "was responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups."

The US officials had suspected this summer that Hamza bin Laden was dead, based on intelligence reports and the fact that he had not been heard from in some time. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Fox News in an August interview that it was "my understanding" that Hamza bin Laden was dead.

A US official familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity about intelligence-gathering said that Hamza bin Laden was killed in the past 18 months. Confirming such a high-profile death can take a long time, said the official, who declined to say what led the US to report his death with certainty.

The younger bin Laden had been viewed as an eventual heir to the leadership of al-Qaida, and the group's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had praised him in a 2015 video that appeared on jihadi websites, calling him a "lion from the den of al-Qaida." Bin Laden's death leaves Zawahiri with the challenge of finding a different successor.

The US government in February said it was offering $1 million for help tracking down Hamza bin Laden as part of the State Department's Rewards for Justice program. The department's notice said he was married to a daughter of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, an al-Qaida leader and Egyptian charged for his role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa. They were said to have two children, Osama and Khairiah, named after his parents.

He was named a "specially designated global terrorist" in January 2017 and had released audio and video messages calling for attacks against the US and its allies. To mark one 9/11 anniversary, al-Qaida superimposed a childhood photo of him over a photo of the World Trade Center.

A video released by the CIA in 2017 that was seized during the 2011 US raid that killed Osama bin Laden showed Hamza bin Laden with a trimmed mustache but no beard at his wedding. Previous images have only shown him as a child.

Hamza bin Laden is believed to have been born in 1989, the year of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, where his father became known among the mujahedeen fighters. His father returned to Saudi Arabia and later fled to Sudan after criticizing the kingdom for allowing US troops to deploy in the country during the 1991 Gulf War. He later fled Sudan for Afghanistan in 1996, where he declared war against the US.

As al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden oversaw attacks that included the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen in 2000. He and others plotted and executed the 2001 attacks against the United States that led to the US invasion of Afghanistan. US Navy SEALs killed the elder bin Laden in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

This past March, Saudi Arabia announced that it had revoked the citizenship of Hamza bin Laden. The kingdom stripped Osama bin Laden's citizenship in 1994 while he was living in exile in Sudan when Hamza bin Laden was just a child. It was unclear where Hamza bin Laden was at the time of the Saudi action.

Hamza bin Laden began appearing in terrorist videos and recordings in 2015 as an al-Qaida spokesman.

"If you think that your sinful crime that you committed in Abbottabad has passed without punishment, then you thought wrong," he said in his first audio recording.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, a US-led invasion of Afghanistan sought to topple the Taliban, an ally of al-Qaida, and seize the elder bin Laden. He escaped and split from his family as he crossed into Pakistan. Hamza was 12 when he saw his father for the last time.

"It was as if we pulled out our livers and left them there," he wrote of the separation.

Hamza and his mother followed other al-Qaida members into Pakistan and then Iran, where other al-Qaida leaders hid them, according to experts and an analysis of documents seized after US raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Iran later put the al-Qaida members on its soil into custody. During this time, Hamza married.

In March 2010, Hamza and others left Iranian custody. He went to Pakistan's Waziristan province, where he asked for weapons training, according to a letter to the elder bin Laden. His mother left for Abbottabad, joining her husband in his hideout. On May 2, 2011, the Navy SEAL team raided Abbottabad, killing Osama bin Laden and his son Khalid, as well as others. Saber and other wives living in the house were imprisoned. Hamza again disappeared.

In August 2015, a video emerged on jihadi websites of al-Zawahiri introducing "a lion from the den of al-Qaida" – Hamza bin Laden. Since then, Hamza had been featured in al-Qaida messages, delivering speeches on everything from the war in Syria to Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as president.

But he hadn't been heard from since a message in March 2018 in which he threatened the rulers of Saudi Arabia.

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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, provided no further details, including when Hamza died or where.

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US President Donald Trump earlier on Wednesday declined to comment after NBC News first reported the US assessment.

Separately, the White House declined to comment on whether an announcement was imminent.

Hamza, believed to be about 30 years old, was at his father's side in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and spent time with him in Pakistan after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan pushed much of al-Qaida's senior leadership there, according to the Brookings Institution.

Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces who raided his compound in Pakistan in 2011. Hamza was thought to be under house arrest in Iran at the time, and documents recovered from the compound indicated that aides had been trying to reunite him with his father.

The New York Times reported that the United States had a role in the operation that led to Hamza's death, which it said took place in the past two years. Reuters could not immediately verify those details.

Still, the US government's conclusion appears to be a recent one. In February, the State Department said it was offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading "to the identification or location in any country" of Hamza, calling him a key al-Qaida leader.

Introduced by al-Qaida's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message in 2015, Hamza provided a younger voice for the group whose aging leaders have struggled to inspire terrorists around the world galvanized by Islamic State, according to analysts.

Hamza has called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals and threatened to take revenge against the United States for his father's killing, the US State Department said in 2017 when it designated him as a global terrorist.

He also threatened to target Americans abroad and urged tribal groups in Saudi Arabia to unite with Yemen's al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to fight against Saudi Arabia, it said.

In March, Saudi Arabia announced it had stripped Hamza bin Laden of his citizenship, saying the decision was made by a royal order in November 2018.

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