9/11 Report Spurs Kerry Attack

A day after the Sept. 11 commission staff reported that there was no credible evidence of cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, Sen. John F. Kerry said Thursday that the Bush administration “took its eye off of the real war on terror” and instead invaded Iraq “for reasons of its own.”

“It is clear that the president owes the American people a fundamental explanation about why he rushed to war for a purpose that it now turns out is not supported by the facts,” Kerry told reporters upon arriving in Michigan.

The report, which undercut a key part of President Bush’s rationale for invading Iraq, drew attention from Kerry’s effort this week to focus on jobs. But the findings also gave the Massachusetts senator an opening to try to capitalize on the continuing political damage the war has inflicted on Bush.

In his stump speech at a Detroit union hall, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee inserted a line about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, saying he would “make sure that our country stands up as a beacon for the world -- of moral values, not this prison scandal.”

Kerry was most pointed during a news conference at a Detroit airport.

Asked about reports that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld personally ordered that a terrorism suspect be kept off the roster of detainees at a U.S. military prison in Iraq, Kerry said: “Every few days, folks, we learn more than this administration’s willing to tell us.”

Rumsfeld’s order blocked the International Committee of the Red Cross from learning of the suspect’s detention in what administration officials acknowledged was a violation of international law.

Kerry also faulted Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for saying “very directly to the American people that the war against Al Qaeda is the war on Iraq.”

“Now, today, there’s some Al Qaeda there, but this administration took its eye off of Al Qaeda, took its eye off of the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan, and transferred it for reasons of its own to Iraq,” he said.

Kerry declined to say what he thought those reasons were. “You have to ask the administration,” he said.

In Washington, the White House did not back away from its earlier statements about links between Al Qaeda and Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator.

Bush told reporters after a Cabinet meeting: “This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and Al Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.”

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt noted that Kerry himself had said in October 2002 that Hussein supported and harbored terrorists.

“His statements today directly contradict that,” Schmidt said. “He voted for the war in Iraq, then nine months later declared himself an antiwar candidate. His political attacks today are yet another example of John Kerry exploiting the war on terror because he perceives a political benefit.”

Polls have found Bush’s popularity dropping this spring as troubles in Iraq have grown, and some political analysts think that a small but crucial bloc of swing voters is weighing whether Kerry is an alternative.

But some Democrats have suggested that Kerry must define himself and his agenda more clearly.

He has sought to do that this week in speeches in New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan.

At the Detroit union hall, Kerry repeated his pitch to middle-class Americans who are struggling to pay their bills. Hoping to shore up support among blacks and union members in this battleground state, he campaigned with the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York and electrical workers.

Kerry says his proposals would cut healthcare costs, offset rising college tuition and child-care bills with tax credits, expand after-school programs and reduce gasoline prices by curbing America’s dependence on foreign oil.

In Washington, during a speech to a convention of small-business people, Bush cited positive economic news, such as the creation of 1.4 million jobs since August, and denounced those who, he said, continued to doubt whether a “broad and strong” recovery was underway.

“At every stage of our recovery, people were always looking for a cloud to stand under,” Bush said.

“There are modern-day economic pessimists around who are quick to offer dire predictions and complaints. But you know what?

“They do not offer pro-growth economic policies. They can find the dark cloud, but they can’t see the sunshine because they don’t know where to take the country, and they don’t know where to lead.”

Times staff writer Edwin Chen contributed to this report.