Kerry Faults Bush on Terror Readiness

SEATTLE —  Citing warnings of a new Al Qaeda attack in the United States, Democratic presidential hopeful John F. Kerry accused President Bush on Wednesday of failing to provide adequate protection to ports, nuclear power plants and other possible terrorist targets.

“Why is it that in our ports all across this country, we still don’t have the inspection of containers that are coming into our nation?” Kerry asked at a campaign rally here on the downtown waterfront.

“Why is it that our trains and other forms of transportation don’t have the protection that we know would make us safer? Why is it that chemical plants and nuclear facilities still don’t have the plans in place, and the protections in place, that are necessary?”

The Massachusetts senator, speaking in a city with one of the busiest ports in the country, suggested Bush had used the threat of terrorist attacks for political gain and argued that the president had shortchanged money for police, firefighters and other emergency response crews.

“We deserve a president of the United States who doesn’t make homeland security a photo opportunity and the rhetoric of a campaign,” Kerry told about 2,000 cheering supporters gathered in the rain on a pier near Seattle’s skyscrapers.

“We deserve a president who makes America safer.”

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Bush’s reelection campaign, dismissed Kerry’s accusations as “completely baseless, factually inaccurate attacks.”

“Port security, chemical plant security, nuclear plant security have all been strengthened under President Bush’s leadership,” he said.

He noted that the administration plans substantial funding increases for the Department of Homeland Security, with grants for high-threat areas. Since 2001, Schmidt said, $11 billion has been allocated for state and local preparedness, and other money has been distributed for border personnel, transportation security and defense from biological attack.

Kerry’s shift in emphasis from his domestic agenda to national security comes as polls show the Republican president suffering significant political damage from the continuing upheaval in Iraq, and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by their U.S. military guards. Some polls this week indicate that public support for the war has dropped, and that Americans are dissatisfied with the general direction of the situation in Iraq.

Appealing for votes in a Democratic city where the antiwar rhetoric of his former primary rival Howard Dean was particularly popular, Kerry reiterated his charge that Bush had “conducted the most arrogant, inept, reckless, ideological foreign policy in the modern history of our nation.”

The presumptive Democratic nominee plans to give a speech this morning in Seattle on national security, launching 11 days of campaign events that spotlight his positions on Iraq, terrorism and an array of other security matters.

At the waterfront rally Wednesday, Kerry opened what was billed as an energy speech with remarks on the Bush administration’s announcement that a major Al Qaeda strike could be imminent. The news offered a reminder “that we do live in dangerous times,” he said.

“Now I’m not going to stand in front of you as a potential president and say to you that you can protect every single place and harden every single target in the country. All Americans know better than that.

” ... What we can do is protect against catastrophe. What we can do is protect those places that are the most logical places for the largest potential damage and danger. And that’s the responsibility of a president.”