- WASHINGTON -- Exasperated
by weeks of allegations that he exaggerated his combat record in Vietnam,
John Kerry has finally turned on the veterans making the claims, accusing
them of doing President George Bush's dirty work.
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- Mr Kerry has filed a complaint with government regulators
alleging that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "illegally co-ordinated
with the Bush- Cheney presidential campaign".
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- David Wade, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, said:
"It is time for the FEC to do what John McCain said is honourable
and what George Bush didn't have the courage to do and that's get these
lies off the airways."
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- Mr Kerry's aides said a decision was taken during the
week to attack the veterans after it was revealed that several news organisations
were investigating their backgrounds. Several exposÈs have revealed
that many of the veterans decrying Mr Kerry and featuring in a television
commercial, in which they call him a liar, have close links with the Republican
hierarchy and to Mr Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove.
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- "The fact that the President won't denounce what
they're up to tells you everything you need to know he wants them to do
his dirty work," Mr Kerry told an audience in Boston on Thursday.
"The President keeps telling people he would never question my service
to our country. Instead he watches as a Republican-funded attack group
does just that."
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- He added: "He wants to have a debate about our service
in Vietnam. Here is my answer: bring it on." Mr Kerry's heated comments
reveal not only the increasingly bitter and bloody nature of the election
campaign, but also the importance the Democrats have placed in Mr Kerry's
record as a US Navy swift boat commander in Vietnam, where he won three
Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and Silver Star.
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- Aware that Democrats are traditionally attacked and
are perceived to be weaker by voters on the issue of national defence
and security, a decision was taken to push Mr Kerry's military record.
At the party's convention last month, the candidate's service record was
a topic repeatedly mentioned by speakers and it featured in a small biographical
film about Mr Kerry, who started his final-night speech to delegates with
the words: "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty." Some
of Mr Kerry's colleagues from Vietnam shared the stage with him.
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- Mr Kerry's claims have been countered by another group
of veterans, who say he has exaggerated his experiences and insinuate that,
rather than being wounded by the enemy, he may have injured himself perhaps
deliberately. In the ad produced by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, one
veteran, Rear Admiral Ron Hoffman, says: "John Kerry has not been
honest." Another veteran, John O'Neill, has co-authored a book, Unfit
for Command, which makes similar claims.
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- But investigations by American newspapers, including
The New York Times and Washington Post, have revealed links between the
group and senior Republicans, suggesting their actions have been carefully
choreographed to cause maximum damage to Mr Kerry.
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- The investigations have also uncovered inaccuracies and
inconsistencies in their comments. Records show, for instance, that the
group received the bulk of its initial funding from men with close links
to President Bush one a trustee of Mr Bush's father's presidential library
and the other an associate of Mr Rove.
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- The reports also show that a publicist in Texas who helped
Mr Bush's father prepare for a presidential debate provided advice to the
group, while the company that produced the television ad previously made
an ad that mocked Michael Dukakis, the Democratic candidate in 1988.
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- Reporters have also found that many of the comments made
by members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth do not match things they had
previously said. For example, in 2003, Mr Hoffman told The Boston Globe
newspaper that Mr Kerry's actions in Vietnam "took guts and I admire
that".
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- In an unpublished interview, he also told Mr Kerry's
biographer, Douglas Brinkley, that while he disagreed with Mr Kerry's anti-war
views, "I am not going to say anything bad about him. He's a good
man".
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- Mr Bush has refused to directly condemn the ad, but a
spokesman for his campaign, Steve Schmidt, said the allegation the President
was in league with the group criticising Mr Kerry's war record "is
absolutely and completely false", adding: "The Bush campaign
has never and will never question John Kerry's service in Vietnam."
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- A poll for CBS has suggested Mr Kerry's support among
veterans has fallen following the attacks on him. The poll showed that
after the party's convention, Mr Kerry and Mr Bush were tied at 46 points
each among veterans. Now the polls say Mr Bush leads by 55 to 37 per cent
among that group.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ americas/story.jsp?story=553684
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