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Kerry Accuses Bush of Avoiding the Truth on Iraq

Sun Oct 3, 2004 04:36 PM ET

By Greg Frost

AUSTINTOWN, Ohio (Reuters) - John Kerry accused President Bush on Sunday of avoiding "the facts and the truth" about the White House's use of questionable intelligence to justify invading Iraq.

Kerry cited a report in The New York Times on Sunday that said the White House knew before ordering the invasion of Iraq that key intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged nuclear weapons program was questionable.

Kerry said the report not only raised "serious questions about whether the administration was open and honest" about Iraq but also might explain Bush's upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy.

"All too often the administration also chooses to avoid the facts and the truth," Kerry said at a campaign stop in northeastern Ohio, an economically distressed pocket of this battleground state at the heart of America's rust belt.

He said Ohio had lost more than 230,000 jobs since Bush took office and yet the president has said during campaign appearances here that the U.S. economy was strengthening.

"The president has been here many times," Kerry told a town hall meeting in Austintown, Ohio. "Does he really see what's going on in the lives of middle class Americans, people fighting for survival?"

Ohio is one of a handful of pivotal states in the election and no Republican has ever won the White House without carrying the state. Bush won Ohio by about 3.5 percentage points over Democrat Al Gore in 2000, and some polls show the race is very tight again this year.

Kerry's stop in Ohio came as polls showed voters view him in a more favorable light after his first debate against Bush on Thursday in Florida, which many thought the Democrat won.

A Los Angeles Times poll indicated Kerry had improved his image with voters who watched the debate, but didn't significantly shift their voting choice.

However, a Newsweek poll showed Kerry has pulled ahead of Bush, and the first televised debate in the campaign erased the lead Bush had enjoyed for the last month.

Kerry also accused Bush of helping companies transfer jobs and tax revenues offshore. He said profits sheltered by American companies in tax havens have surged more than two-thirds under Bush, costing U.S. taxpayers some $40 billion a year in tax revenues.

"This administration, every time it's had an opportunity to make a choice for you, whether it's healthcare, or prescription drugs or schools... they've made a choice that helps the powerful, the people who are most helped already," the Massachusetts senator said.

Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt said Kerry's economic policies would destroy U.S. jobs. and won't stop outsourcing.

"His plans for higher taxes and new spending will halt our economic growth and destroy jobs, and his own advisers have said that he can't pay for all his new spending, which means higher taxes on all Americans," Schmidt said in a statement.

Earlier, Kerry shook hands with picketers outside a titanium plant in Niles, Ohio. The picketers, who have been locked out of work for nearly a year in a dispute with management over healthcare benefits, wages and new hires, said Kerry's visit lifted their morale.

One, 56-year-old Bob Walsh, wished Kerry good luck as he shook the candidate's hand, noting he had done the same with John Kennedy during his successful 1960 White House campaign.

"I hope it brings me luck, too," Kerry said. "I'll have some of it."

© Copyright Reuters 2004.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6398149