Ding-dong, the witch is dead ...

Dick Cheney, the former White House chief of staff, member of Congress, secretary of defense and US vice-president, has died, his family has said. He was 84.

Cheney was one of the country’s most powerful vice-presidents, widely reported to wield great influence over the less experienced George W Bush, the president under whom he served.

Cheney was in office on 11 September 2001 during the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. While Bush was hurried to safety, Cheney worked with the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to assume policy control. Troops were soon in Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban and hunting al-Qaida.

But Cheney’s place in history will be dominated by the decision to invade Iraq. He had been defense secretary during the first Gulf war against Saddam Hussein, in 1990 and 1991, but now Cheney and Bush’s public rationale for war was that the Iraqi dictator was linked to al-Qaida and thus 9/11, and possessed weapons of mass destruction. By March 2003, when US and coalition forces invaded, no proof had been found for either charge, and both were soon proved false.