Kerry Likens Iraq Events to Bay of Pigs ‘Mistake’ as Bush Returns Attack

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – Campaigning yesterday in deadlocked battleground states in the Midwest, Senator Kerry mounted fresh attacks blaming President Bush for the disappearance of hundreds of tons of high-grade explosives from a military depot, and the president found his stance on the issue undercut unexpectedly by Mayor Giuliani.


Both campaigns have been seeking to frame a four-day dispute over the explosives that vanished from Al Qaqaa in terms of support for American troops in Iraq. Mr. Bush has argued that his Democratic rival denigrates American soldiers by highlighting the issue of the hundreds of tons of high-grade explosives that vanished from a military depot, Al Qaqaa. In what appeared to be an uncharacteristic gaffe, however, the former New York mayor, a Republican who has been stumping for the president, blamed the American military for failing to secure the materiel.


“No matter how you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there,” Mr. Giuliani said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.


Democrats pounced on the remark, citing it as evidence for their contention that Mr. Bush is seeking to avoid responsibility for the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from the military installation.


The president and his advisers have raised the possibility of the explosives having been moved before American troops arrived at the Iraqi base south of Baghdad.


The Democratic nominee for vice president, Senator Edwards, told supporters at a rally at the University of Minnesota that Mr. Bush “sent his chief surrogate out to defend the fact that he didn’t do anything.”


“And this is what Rudy did, he blamed the troops,” Mr. Edwards said. “He said they didn’t do their job. He couldn’t be more wrong.”


Speaking in Toledo, Ohio, at the start of a long campaigning day that took him later to Wisconsin, Mr. Kerry accused the president of passing the buck.


“When the Bay of Pigs went sour, John Kennedy had the courage to look America in the eye and say, ‘I take responsibility, it’s my fault,'” Mr. Kerry said, referring to the bungled invasion of Cuba in 1961. “John Kennedy knew how to take responsibility for the mistakes he made, and Mr. President, it’s long since time for you to start taking responsibility for the mistakes you made.”


The president was no less forceful in reply. In Saginaw, Mich., Mr. Bush returned to the flip-flop charges the Republican ticket has leveled at Mr. Kerry before. “A president cannot blow in the wind,” he said. “Senator Kerry has taken a lot of different positions, but he’s rarely taken a stand,” Bush said. “Consistency is not the senator’s strong suit.”


Stumping in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, the same Midwest states he was in on Wednesday but in the reverse order, Mr. Bush accused his Democratic rival of emboldening America’s enemies in Iraq and elsewhere by blowing in the political winds.


The president told cheering supporters: “What does that lack of conviction say to our troops, who are risking their lives in a vital cause? What does it say to our allies, who have joined us in that cause? What does that lack of conviction signal to our enemies?” The president slammed Mr. Kerry for “attacking the actions of our military in Iraq with complete disregard for the facts.”


The highly personal exchange between the party tickets over the missing explosives came as doubts mounted about whether the materiel was even at Al-Qaqaa when American troops arrived at the depot, around the time Baghdad fell. Several first-hand accounts, including from the infantry commander of the troops who first arrived at the depot, point toward the possibility that the explosives were removed before the American-led invasion to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.


Colonel David Perkins, who commanded the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, said it was “very highly improbable” that hundreds of tons of explosives could have been trucked out under the noses of the American military, especially as the two major roads that pass the installation were full of traffic from the coalition forces.


Questions were also raised yesterday over whether the Democrats are significantly overstating the amount of explosives that disappeared during the invasion or shortly after – an overstatement that began with reports on Monday in the New York Times and on CBS News.


According to documents from the International Atomic Energy Agency that were obtained by ABC News, more than 100 tons of RDX explosive appears to have been moved from Al Qaqaa two months before the American-led invasion. The documents suggest there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility in July 2002, but only three tons of RDX in early January 2003.That would have still left, though, more than 140 tons of HDX explosives that were also stored at the site.


The documents from the U.N. atomic-energy agency also raise questions about the motives of the head of the energy agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, in publicizing the matter on the eve of the election. In his report Monday to the Security Council, Mr. ElBaradei made no mention of the fact that according to his own agency, 137 tons of RDX went missing two months before the American-led invasion.


Despite the deepening mystery surrounding the timing and circumstances of the disappearance of the explosives, Mr. Kerry remained determined to keep the issue at the center of his campaign in the final days of a deadlocked race.


Advisers to the Kerry campaign told The New York Sun that they had no intention of withdrawing an ad highlighting the issue, which is being shown in the Midwest, and they said Mr. Kerry would maintain a drumbeat of criticism about the missing explosives.


The Iraq dispute prompted Secretary of State Powell, who in keeping with tradition has stayed off the campaign trail, to make a campaign appearance yesterday. In a radio interview he said it was unfortunate the missing explosives had become “such a hot political issue in the presence of these unclear facts.” In reference to the atomic-energy agency’s documents, the retired general said: “There is some suggestion there might not have been that much explosives missing in the first place.”


The weapons dispute, though, may not be helping Mr. Kerry with the national vote. Yesterday, the Rasmussen tracking poll had Mr. Bush eking out a two-percentage-point lead over Mr. Kerry, giving the president 48.9% support nationally and his Democratic challenger 46.9%. But the result was within the sampling margin of error.


Polls in many battleground states continue to have the candidates tied, and the key states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio still appear to up for grabs, although Mr. Kerry may have a slight lead in the Buckeye State. Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Oregon appear deadlocked.


The Democrats, though, were buoyed by a poll in the Detroit News yesterday that gave Mr. Kerry a lead of five percentage points over Mr. Bush in Michigan. That poll had a margin of error of four percentage points. Other tracking polls in Michigan conducted last week and reported this week gave Mr. Bush a similar lead.


The explosives missing from Al Qaqaa did not shove the economy entirely offstage yesterday.


Mr. Kerry seized on a bigger-than-expected increase in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits. According to the Labor Department, the filings rose last week by 20,000, the largest jump in a month.


The Democratic nominee told a noisy rally in Madison, Wis., that the figures showed that Mr. Bush’s tax cuts did little to spur economic growth.


The president responded, “We have much more to do to create jobs” and proclaimed, “I am ready for the job.”


Both campaigns are pulling out celebrities to help them in the scramble for votes. The rock star Bruce Springsteen endorsed Mr. Kerry and sang at the Massachusetts senator’s rally in Madison and Ohio. Boston Red Sox pitching star Curt Schilling is to campaign with the president in New Hampshire later today.


The New York Sun

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