Former Vice President Dick Cheney fears that he’ll be tried as a war criminal, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, is claiming. ABC News is reporting that in response to Cheney’s new book, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir”, in which he criticizes his Bush administration colleagues, Wilkerson has also stated that the vice president “was president for all practical purposes for (George W. Bush’s) first term.”

Powell appeared on CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation’ on August 28, and called Cheney’s criticisms of his Bush administration colleagues “cheap shots.” Cheney claimed in his memoir that Powell undermined President Bush. “It was as though he thought the proper way to express his views was by criticizing administration policy to people outside the government,” Cheney wrote of Powell.

Powell said the memoir caught his attention by the way Cheney described it. One quote Cheney made that Powell is referring to is “It’s going to ’cause heads to explode.'” He added that it’s “the kind of headline I would expect to come out of a gossip columnist…It’s not the kind of headline I would have expected to come from a former vice president of the United States of America.”

Wilkerson told ABC News that he feels Cheney is trying to vindicate himself. He added that Cheney’s trying not to act concerned that he’ll be tried for war crimes, even though he’s afraid he will be.

Written by: Karen Benardello