Kerry fires off new attack on missing Iraq weapons

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Oct 26 (AFP) - Democratic challenger John Kerry unleashed a new attack on President George W. Bush on Tuesday over a huge cache of deadly high explosives missing in Iraq.
Kerry also pounded Bush on a report that the administration will request 70 billion dollars in new funding for Iraq and Afghanistan next year, asking "how much more will the American people have to pay?"
Exactly a week before polling day, Kerry roasted Bush over the disappearance of 350 tonnes of high explosives in Iraq, which injected a new knot of contention into an already bruising election campaign on Monday.
"What did the president have to say about the missing explosives? Not a word. Complete silence," Kerry said, a day after Bush failed to mention the controversy in campaign appearances.
"George Bush has not offered a single word of explanation ... he failed to secure Iraq and keep it from becoming what it is today -- a haven for terrorists," Kerry said in a speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Vice President Dick Cheney hit back at Kerry, telling a rally in Pensacola, Florida, "It is not at all clear that those explosives were even at the weapons facility when our troops arrived in the area of Baghdad. John Kerry doesn't mention that.
"Nor does he mention the 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives that our troops have captured and are destroying," said Cheney.
"If our troops had not gone into Iraq, as John Kerry apparently thinks they should not have, that is 400,000 tons of weapons and explosives that would be in the hands of Saddam Hussein who would still be sitting in his palace, instead of jail."
The International Atomic Energy agency said on Monday the explosives, missing from an arms dump south of Baghdad, could be used in conventional weapons or to trigger a nuclear device, amid fears they had fallen into the hands of terrorists.
Kerry also criticised attempts by White House aides to dampen the issue, which Democrats say undercuts Bush's central campaign theme that only he can keep America safe from terrorists.
"First they said they couldn't guard the weapons caches because they had other priorities," Kerry said.
"Then they are argued that losing the explosives wasn't really that big a deal, finally at the end of the day, the White House just boldly declared that it just didn't happen."
Kerry said the White House ended Monday by saying that the weapons were missing by the time US troops arrived "without a shred of evidence."
But Bush campaign officials seized on an NBC news report late Monday which said a team from the network was with troops of the US army's 101st airborne division when they took over the arms complex south of Baghdad.
The report said the troops "never found" the explosives now missing, which has led some observers to conclude they could have been moved before the invasion, before US troops could be deemed culpable in their disappearance.
Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the report proved that the report exposed Kerry's claims as "baseless and false."
By the time Kerry had flown west to Las Vegas on Tuesday, his campaign had unveiled a new advertisement showing Kerry in presidential pose, standing in front of a US flag, criticising Bush on the issue.
Bush's "Iraq misjudgements put our soldiers at risk, and make our country less secure," Kerry said in the commercial, to run in markets where Bush will campaign in the closing week of the campaign.
Kerry on Tuesday also lambasted Bush over a Washington Post report that the administration would next year make a new request for funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We have learned that the president wants an additional 70 billion dollars of your money by early next year for Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the total cost to 225 billion dollars.
"Mr President, what else are you being silent about? What else are you keeping from the American people? How much more will the American people have to pay?"
Kerry was campaigning in Wisconsin before embarking on a four-hour flight deep into the American west, to Nevada, a state he hopes to snatch from Bush. He will then move on to New Mexico and later spend the night in Iowa.
He also reeled off a string of what he called vast gaps in US homeland security provisions, in ports, airports, against possible bioterror attacks and in immigration.
"The FBI warns us that Al-Qaeda may attack trains or subways here as they did in Madrid. But George Bush hasn't asked Congress for one dime to strengthen our public transportation system."

10/27/2004 00:11 GMT - AFP