Intelligence

Bush, Kerry Trade Attacks Over Missing Explosives

washingtonpost.com: Bush, Kerry Trade Attacks Over Missing Explosives

By Dana Milbank and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 27, 2004; 4:15 PM

LITITZ, Pa., Oct. 27 -- President Bush took up the issue of missing high explosives in Iraq for the first time today, counterattacking Democratic challenger John F. Kerry for making "wild charges" without knowing the facts and accusing the Massachusetts senator of "denigrating" U.S. troops and commanders.

Kerry, campaigning in Iowa, said the Bush administration was trying to "avoid responsibility" for the missing 380 tons of high explosives "just as they've done each step of the way in our involvement in Iraq." And he appealed to middle-class voters not to give Bush four more years to "keep up the bad work."

Two retired generals who support Kerry later issued statements attacking Bush's comments on the explosives and arguing that they demonstrate the need for a new commander in chief.

The recriminations came as Bush, Kerry and their running mates fanned out to seven battleground states today to hammer home what they hope will be winning themes in an election that polls show remains too close to call.

Bush, rallying voters today in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, put out a rare positive television advertisement aimed at showing compassion for the sacrifices of U.S. troops and expressing his resolve to defeat terrorists.

The Kerry campaign also put out a new ad that honors soldiers fighting in Iraq as "heroes."

The Democratic candidate's running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, was spending the day in the crucial swing state of Florida before flying to Duluth, Minn.

Vice President Cheney, began his day with a rally in Kissimmee, Fla., then was heading to Pennsylvania for a rally and to Wisconsin for a meeting with community leaders.

In his speech in Lititz, Pa., this morning, Bush broke his silence on the missing Iraqi explosives with a derisive attack on Kerry for using it to criticize the administration.

"After repeatedly calling Iraq the 'wrong war' and a 'diversion,' Senator Kerry this week seemed shocked to learn that Iraq was a dangerous place full of dangerous weapons," Bush said to scattered laughter from a crowd of supporters. "The senator used to know that, even though he seems to have forgotten it over the course of the campaign. But after all, that's why we're there. Iraq was a dangerous place run by a dangerous tyrant who had a lot of weapons. We have seized or destroyed more than 400,000 tons of munitions, including explosives, at . . . thousands of different sites, and we're continuing to round up more weapons every day."

Bush continued, "I want to remind the American people if Senator Kerry had his way, we would still be taking our 'global test,' Saddam Hussein would still be in power, he would control all those weapons and explosives, and could have shared them with our terrorist enemies."

Charging that Kerry "is making wild charges" about the missing explosives, Bush said Kerry also is "denigrating the action of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts."

He added, "Our military is now investigating a number of possible scenarios, including that the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived at the site. This investigation is important and it's ongoing, and a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief."

In response, retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, a Kerry supporter who competed with him for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Bush's words amounted to "a very compelling and thoughtful argument for why he should not be reelected."

It was Bush who "jumped to conclusions about any connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11," Clark said in a statement released by the Kerry campaign. "He jumped to conclusions about weapons of mass destruction. He jumped to conclusions about the mission being accomplished. He jumped to conclusions about how we had enough troops on the ground to win the peace. And because he jumped to conclusions, terrorists and insurgents in Iraq may very well have their hands on powerful explosives to attack our troops, we are stuck in Iraq without a plan to win the peace, and Americans are less safe both at home and abroad."

Clark concluded: "By doing all these things, he broke faith with our men and women in uniform. He has let them down. George W. Bush is unfit to be our commander in chief."

Retired Air Force Gen. Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak said in a statement that Bush seems to believe that Kerry should not be criticizing him "since the president thinks he has never made a mistake."

McPeak continued: "Let's be perfectly clear: it is the President who dropped the ball. Senator Kerry is being critical of George Bush, not the troops. By embarking on the line of attack, George Bush is deflecting blame from him over to the military. This is beneath contempt."

The International Atomic Energy Agency officially informed the United Nations Monday that nearly 380 tons of high explosives, including some material under U.N. seal because it could be used in nuclear weapons, were missing from the vast al Qaqaa storage site 30 miles south of Baghdad.

The Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology said the explosives disappeared after April 9, 2003, the day that Baghdad fell to U.S. forces and the government of president Saddam Hussein collapsed. The ministry blamed a "lack of security" for the loss, and officials expressed suspicion that the munitions had been looted by insurgents.

Renewing his attacks over the matter, Kerry said today in a speech in Sioux City, Iowa, "We're seeing this White House dodge and bob and weave in their usual effort to avoid responsibility -- just as they've done each step of the way in our involvement in Iraq."

"Instead of coming clean with the American people, the administration blamed the bad news on the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.S. military -- and even the media -- and all the while, took no responsibility for creating the situation where these weapons could go missing in the first place," Kerry said.

He said the Bush administration "first tried to convince the American people that this was not a big deal," then said that "guarding explosive dumps was not a high priority. . . ." Now, Kerry said, "the White House switched to their most comfortable position -- the situation was bad but it was not their responsibility. Vice President Cheney, who is becoming the chief minister of disinformation, echoed that it's not the administration's fault and even criticized those who raised the subject. This is a growing scandal, and the American people deserve a full and honest explanation of how it happened and what this president is going to do about it."

Kerry said the U.S. commander who reached the site "was never told to stop, inspect and protect it. He was never even told what it was." He said, "The troops did their job. The commander in chief failed to do his. . . . And the reason they failed is because they didn't plan and they rushed to war without a plan to win the peace."

Kerry also appealed in his speech for support from middle-class voters.

"After four years in office, this president has failed middle-class families with almost every choice he's made," Kerry said. "He's given more to those with the most at the expense of middle-class working families who are struggling to get ahead. Now he's asking you to give him four more years so that he can keep up the bad work."

For his part, Cheney went back on the attack in a rally inside a humid hangar at the municipal airport in Kissimmee filled with several hundred pom-pom waving supporters, Washington Post staff writer Lyndsey Layton reported. Cheney emphasized his themes of national security and the war on terrorism as he stood near a 1942 Stearman that was flown by former president George H. W. Bush as a young man.

"John Kerry is trying every which way to cover up his record on defense, which is one of weakness," Cheney said. "As we say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig. At the end of the day, it's still a pig."

Cheney added, "President Bush understands the war on terror and has a strategy for winning it. Senator Kerry does not." As he spoke, one woman shouted, "Kerry stinks!"

The rally was a love-fest in the conservative, rural Florida community. Three busloads of schoolchildren from the Heritage Christian School waited for an hour and a half to see Cheney and clap for the man they said speaks to the issues important to their lives.

Asked to name the country's biggest problem, 12-year-old Vivian Resto said, "Homosexuals. I think it's kind of gross, and my mom and I believe it should be a man and a woman."

Her 7-year-old classmate, Kevin Strickland, said the most significant issue facing the country is stem cell research. And 13-year-old Marcus Kleinhans said he was most worried about abortion.

Cheney got the most robust applause after he said, "We believe our nation is one nation under God. And we believe Americans ought to be able to say so when we pledge allegiance to our flag."

Later, at an afternoon rally in Washington, Pa., about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, Cheney repeated Bush's charge that Kerry is making "wild" accusations about the missing explosives in Iraq, Layton reported.

"Our troops ought to be praised for the 400,000 tons of explosives they've seized and destroyed" since the invasion of Iraq, Cheney told several hundred people gathered in the basketball gym at Washington & Jefferson College. "These men and women deserve better than to have their service questioned by a political candidate who is so anxious to get elected, he won't wait for the facts."

Washington County is mostly Democratic, and the vice presidential motorcade passed the first knot of protesters it has seen all week. Many homes lining the streets to the college hung Kerry-Edwards signs, and Cheney arrived to a vocal group shouting, "Go home, Dick!" But inside the gymnasium, the crowd hooted and hollered for Cheney and his wife, Lynne, and applauded wildly as the vice president spoke of the administration's support for gun ownership, its opposition to partial-birth abortion and its determination to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

Cheney is keeping a frantic schedule in the final days before the election, traveling from early morning until late night. He planned events in five states over the course of today and tomorrow. The vice president and his entourage left Florida at noon for the rally in Washington, Pa., and were flying this evening to Waukesha, Wis.

The Bush-Cheney campaign, meanwhile released an ad, called "Whatever It Takes," featuring a clip from Bush's address to the Republican National Convention in which he speaks of returning the salutes of wounded soldiers, holding the children of the fallen and meeting with loved ones "who have received a folded flag."

He says in the ad, "These four years have brought moments I could not foresee and will not forget." Addressing military families, he says, "Because of your service and sacrifice, we are defeating the terrorists where they live and plan, and you're making America safer. I will never relent in defending America, whatever it takes."

In Kerry's new ad, called "Heroes," a narrator says, "Our soldiers fighting in Iraq are heroes. Their families have earned our thanks and our support. As we see the deepening crisis and chaos in Iraq, as we choose a new commander in chief and a fresh start, we will always support and honor those who serve."

Campaigning in Clearwater, Fla, this morning, Edwards sought to counter Bush's appeals in recent days to Democrats, Washington Post staff writer John Wagner reported.

Bush has said that Kerry has "turned his back" on the tradition of Democrats who showed confidence and resolve in times of crisis, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy.

"Those were Democratic presidents who led with a combination of strength and courage," Edwards said. "George Bush's combination is fear and failure."

Bush "has the kind of record, in fact, that a man like Herbert Hoover would be proud of," Edwards said, invoking the Republican president who presided over job losses at the start of the Great Depression.

The stop at a Clearwater community center was the first of three Florida appearances Edwards has scheduled today that are billed as efforts to encourage early voting in the key battleground of Florida. Following a rally, Edwards greeted a couple of dozen of voters who boarded school buses en route to early-voting polling sites.

The issue of the missing Iraqi explosives continued to dominate morning news shows today. Interviewed on the Fox News Channel, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) said that "we don't know really if the weapons were ever there" and that Kerry's continued stumping on the issue is "inappropriate" and "desperate."

She said, "I think we should remember that when our troops were marching toward Baghdad, they were looking for weapons of mass destruction, they were looking for chemical weapons that might be used on our troops, on the Iraqi people. They were not focused on conventional weapons at that time."

On NBC's "Today" show, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) asserted that when troops of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division arrived at the vast al Qaqaa storage site 30 miles south of Baghdad on April 10 -- a day after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government -- the high explosives "weren't there."

Reporters who were embedded with the troops have said they do not know whether the munitions in question -- including HMX and RDX explosives -- were there or not at that time. They have described seeing evidence of U.S. bomb damage, but no sign of looting on that day and bunkers that were still sealed. The troops were not focused on guarding sites because they were in a hurry to move north, the reporters said.

On the same program, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) disputed Chambliss, saying that the International Atomic Energy Agency had warned the United States about the explosives before the war and reported in May this year that looters may be helping themselves to "the greatest explosives bonanza in history."

Biden said, "This is not our military's fault. We do not have enough forces. . . . We didn't have enough troops to guard the ammo dumps, we didn't have enough troops to guard the borders, we didn't have enough troops to stop the looting. It was a fundamental flaw in policy of going in."

Branigin reported from Washington.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

October 27, 2004 at 09:59 PM in Iraq | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home