Washington Post's Farhi profiles the man Dick Cheney shot, Harry Whittington, where he shows that his "eye socket, hairline and hand have birdshot pellets lodged in them." While "some of the lead in Whittington's body" has since "worked its way to the surface," many pieces "remain too deeply embedded to remove, including one near his heart." Whittington noted "he will live the rest of his days with about 30 pieces of shot inside him."

Whittington, on what he remembers of the shooting: "All I remember was the smell of burning powder. And then I passed out."

Meanwhile, Whittington notes that his injuries "were more dire than previously disclosed." Whittington "suffered a mild heart attack" and a collapsed lung.

Whittington also "saved the vest" from the incident, which "has been sliced up the side, as if someone was trying to remove it in a hurry. Its surface is splattered with brownish, irregularly shaped bloodstains." He asserted the vest was "not just as a souvenir but as a warning," showing it "to friends, and to the children of friends, to illustrate the dangers of firearms."

Whittington disclosed that he "barely knew" Cheney and "had met briefly only three times since the mid-1970s and had never gone hunting together before." Whittington: "The most you could say is that he was an acquaintance." The shooting "didn't bring Cheney and Whittington any closer," and while the two have "exchanged birthday greetings, they haven't seen each other for two years." Still, Whittington "bears no ill will toward Cheney" calling him "a very capable and honorable man. He's said some very kind things to me."

Whittington, when asked whether Cheney ever apologized in private: "I'm not going to go into that" (Farhi, Washington Post, 10/14).