WASHINGTON — President Bush on Tuesday accused unnamed people of leaking part of a classified intelligence report on Iraq as an act of political sabotage, intended to "create confusion in the minds of the American people" in advance of the November elections.
Bush's assertion, along with his decision to release portions of the same report in response to the leaks, were the clearest signs yet that the ongoing debate over the Iraq war and its effect on U.S. security has grown to a fever pitch as Republicans and Democrats struggle to shape public opinion before election day.
"Here we are, coming down the stretch of an election campaign, and it's on the front page of your newspaper," Bush said, referring to news stories Sunday on the intelligence report, which said the Iraq war, among other factors, was fueling an expansion of Islamic terrorism. "Isn't that interesting? Somebody's taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes."
Bush's comments were the latest episode in a string of highly public and politically charged clashes over national security that both major parties believe have implications for the elections. They have included a fight over whether President Clinton took sufficient anti-terrorism steps during his time in office, disputes on Capitol Hill over interrogation and domestic wiretapping laws, and differing interpretations of the classified intelligence report.
With Congress entering its final days before adjourning for the fall election campaign, the two parties are fighting over which image will be uppermost in voters' minds on Nov. 7: that the U.S. has taken the terrorism challenge head-on by invading Iraq, or that the invasion and its bloody aftermath have left the United States less safe.
Clinton has become embroiled in the debate, marking a rare foray by a former president into a current political fight. In an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News Channel, Clinton fiercely defended his efforts while in office to stop terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and, in an unusually sharp rebuke of Bush's policies, argued that the administration that followed his had ignored Bin Laden until the Sept. 11 attacks.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Clinton of making "flatly false" claims about the Bush administration's efforts against Bin Laden when she was asked about the former president's remarks Monday by the New York Post.
