The con­ser­v­a­tive Coun­cil for National Pol­icy will meet in down­town Salt Lake

by Thomas Burr
Salt Lake Tribune

Vice Pres­i­dent Dick Cheney will speak to a super-secret, con­ser­v­a­tive pol­icy group in Utah on Fri­day dur­ing his sec­ond trip to the state this year.

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.”

The orga­ni­za­tion — made up of few hun­dred pow­er­ful con­ser­v­a­tive activists — holds con­fi­den­tial meet­ings and mem­bers are advised not to use the name of the group in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, accord­ing to a New York Times pro­file of the group.

“The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our pro­grams, before [or] after a meet­ing,” a list of rules obtained by The Times showed. The group did not respond to an e-mail seek­ing comment.

Czech Repub­lic Pres­i­dent Václav Klaus is also expected to address the Coun­cil for National Policy’s meet­ing in down­town Salt Lake City. After his speech, Cheney will meet with Klaus, the vice president’s office said Tuesday.

For­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov. Mitt Rom­ney, who ran the 2002 Win­ter Olympics in Salt Lake City, will also be in Utah on Fri­day but his cam­paign did not respond to a ques­tion about whether he would talk with the group.

Cheney’s visit is expected to be short, only a few hours, accord­ing to peo­ple famil­iar with the trip’s details. The trip coin­cides with fundrais­ers in Cal­i­for­nia, Col­orado, Nevada and Wyoming, Cheney’s spokes­woman Lea Anne McBride said.