GRAND ISLAND — Vice President Dick Cheney accused the news media Monday of making “the job of defending against further terrorist attacks more difficult.”

Cheney zeroed in on The New York Times in condemning the press for “publishing detailed information about vital national security programs.”

The attack, launched at a fund-raising luncheon for Republican congressional nominee Adrian Smith, was triggered by a story in The Times last week revealing a terrorist financial tracking program.

Cheney also pointed to earlier news reports disclosing secret communications surveillance conducted without court approval.

“The New York Times has now made it more difficult for us to prevent attacks in the future,” the vice president declared.

“Publishing this highly classified information about our sources and methods for collecting intelligence will enable the terrorists to look for ways to defeat our efforts,” he said.

Cheney’s criticism coincided with President Bush’s condemnation of the financial tracking disclosure during remarks to reporters at the White House on Monday.

The sharp attack on The Times by Cheney, whose former chief-of-staff, Scooter Libby, has been accused of leaking national security information to the newspaper, stole the thunder at the GOP event.

In other remarks, Cheney told about 250 contributors the United States is making “steady progress” in Iraq.

The event raised about $100,000 for Smith and the Nebraska Republican Party, with the bulk of the money slated to help fund Smith’s 3rd District congressional campaign.

A small pocket of demonstrators gathered across the street from the Holiday Inn Midtown motel to protest the Bush administration’s war in Iraq.

A motorist stopped to argue with one demonstrator about his sign proclaiming “Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11.”

Donna Merklin of Grand Island, whose son-in-law is serving with a military unit in Iraq, walked over to confront the protesters.

“You ought to be ashamed,” she declared.

“We really are on the same side (because) we speak on behalf of those troops,” replied Len Schropfer of Milligan, who identified himself as a registered Republican and Korean War veteran.

Earlier, inside the hotel ballroom, Cheney said precipitate withdrawal from Iraq prior to building an Iraqi security force capable of defending and securing the country would be a tragic mistake.

The Bush administration will remain on the offensive in pursuing terrorists on their own territory, the vice president said.

“Obviously, no one can guarantee that we won’t be hit again,” Cheney said.

“But the relative safety of these past nearly five years now (since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington) did not come about by accident,” he said.

The programs disclosed by The Times “help explain why we have been so successful in preventing further attacks,” he said.

Cheney said he considers it “a disgrace” that The Times was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for its stories disclosing the terrorist surveillance program.

The vice president’s Grand Island stop is one of dozens he will make in support of Republican candidates as the GOP fights to maintain control of both houses of Congress this November.

Smith, he said, would be “a worthy successor” to departing Rep. Tom Osborne in western and central Nebraska’s 3rd District. “He’ll be a strong voice for spending discipline.”

Cheney praised Gov. Dave Heineman, who attended the event, but did not mention either Sen. Chuck Hagel or GOP Senate nominee Pete Ricketts, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. Neither Hagel nor Ricketts was in Grand Island.

The vice president spoke for 21 minutes and was gone before the contributors were served lunch, departing to the strains of “God Bless America” on the way to his next fundraising stop for GOP congressional nominee Michele Bachmann in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, 3rd District Democratic nominee Scott Kleeb told a Grand Island rally Cheney may have “done more to entrench the power of big oil in Washington than any other politician in history.”

Kleeb said the future of U.S. energy independence “starts right here in Nebraska” with increased ethanol production.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.