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- PORTSMOUTH, United States (AFP) - Democrat challenger
John Kerry's campaign demanded answers from President George W. Bush about
the disappearance of nearly 400 tonnes of conventional explosives in Iraq,
as the deadlocked White House race entered its final week.
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- In a campaign underpinned by the basic question of
who will make Americans safer, the Kerry camp pounced on revelations of
the missing explosives, on a day when it also expects a boost from the
return of former president Bill Clinton to the campaign trail.
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- "Today, the Bush administration must answer for
what may be the most grave and catastrophic mistake in a tragic series
of blunders in Iraq," senior Kerry advisor Joe Lockhart said in a
statement dispatched before sunrise.
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- "How did they fail to secure nearly 380 tons of
known, deadly explosives despite clear warnings from the International
Atomic Energy Agency to do so? Why was this information unearthed by reporters
-- and was it covered up by our national security officials?"
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- "These explosives can be used to blow up airplanes,
level buildings, attack our troops and detonate nuclear weapons.
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- "The Bush administration knew where this stockpile
was, but took no action to secure the site."
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- The International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday confirmed
a report in The New York Times that the interim government of Iraq had
voiced concern over the disappearance.
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- An IAEA spokeswoman added that the agency feared the
powerful explosives may have "fallen into the wrong hands, terrorists'."
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- Clinton was to make his long-awaited comeback to the
campaign trail Monday, kicking off the final week of the deadlocked White
House race.
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- Clinton was due to appear with Kerry at a rally in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just seven weeks after undergoing quadruple
bypass heart surgery. He is scheduled to stump for Kerry in Florida and
in the western United States later in the week.
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- The Kerry camp is hoping the former president -- still
hugely popular with Democrats despite the sex scandal that tarnished his
presidency -- will inspire the party faithful to turn out in droves on
November 2, when turnout could tip the balance in the close-fought race.
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- White House communications director Dan Bartlett said
Clinton's return revealed Kerry's weakness.
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- "The fact that John Kerry's going to have to roll
him off the surgery table and onto the campaign trail demonstrates a revealing
aspect, that he's underperforming in key parts of his own constituency,"
Bartlett told Fox.
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- Campaigning in New Mexico on Sunday, Bush accused Kerry
of not being serious about taking on Iraq's most wanted man.
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- Reprising a frequent attack, Bush cited Kerry's comment
that the invasion of Iraq was a "diversion" from fighting terrorism,
and countered that the ongoing war there meant to crush foes like Abu Mussab
al-Zarqawi.
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- "If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting
Iraqi and American forces in Iraq, what does Senator Kerry think they would
be doing? Peaceful small business owners? Running a benevolent society?"
Bush asked wryly.
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- Bush's comments came after Zarqawi's group announced
in a statement on an Islamist website that it carried out an attack in
which 49 unarmed new Iraqi soldiers were found shot dead, execution style.
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- "Our troops will defeat Zarqawi and his likes
overseas in Iraq, so we do not have to face them here at home," said
the president, who has made the war on terrorism his principal argument
for a second four-year term.
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- Kerry meanwhile seized on Bush's comment in an interview
to be broadcast Monday that whether Americans will ever be safe from extremists
was "up in the air."
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- Campaigning in Florida, the senator assailed Bush for
telling Fox News: "America is safer under the course of action we've
taken, but not yet safe. Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up,
you know, is up in the air."
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- "You make me president of the United States, we
are going to win the war on terror, it's not going to be up in the air
whether or not we make America safe," Kerry countered.
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- Clinton, 58, has been recuperating at his home in Chappaqua,
New York, since undergoing surgery on September 6, limiting his campaign
contributions to written statements and advice offered over the telephone.
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- He drew thousands of people on a book tour earlier
this year to promote his best-selling autobiography "My Life,"
and was widely seen as the star of the show at July's Democratic National
Convention.
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- A seasoned campaigner, Clinton was controversially
kept away from the stump in 2000 by then-vice president Al Gore, who believed
his scandal-tarnished former boss would be a liability.
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