Updated: 05:59 PM EDT
If President, Kerry Would Launch Pre-Emptive Strike
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, AP

WASHINGTON (July 17) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said he
would be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike against terrorists if he had
adequate intelligence of a threat.

Updated: 05:59 PM EDT
If President, Kerry Would Launch Pre-Emptive Strike
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, AP

WASHINGTON (July 17) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said he
would be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike against terrorists if he had
adequate intelligence of a threat.

Kerry on Friday offered some support for one of the most controversial aspects
of President Bush's national security policy, even as he criticized the
president for not reforming intelligence agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks.

"Am I prepared as president to go get them before they get us if we locate them
and have the sufficient intelligence? You bet I am," he said at a news
conference at his Washington headquarters.

The Bush administration laid out the doctrine of pre-emption months before the
Iraq war began in March 2003. It argued that the United States cannot rely on
its vast arsenal to deter attacks and must be willing to strike first against
potential threats. Critics of the policy say the Iraq war shows how the country
could be driven to war by flawed intelligence.

Kerry said the intelligence needs to be improved so that the word of a U.S.
president "is good enough for people across the world again."

But he added, "I will never allow any other country to veto what we need to do
and I will never allow any other institution to veto what we need to do to
protect our nation."

Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt complained that Kerry proposed
cuts in intelligence spending while in the Senate. "John Kerry's attack is
another example of his flailing efforts to defend a record that is out of the
mainstream," Schmidt said.

Kerry spoke one week after the Senate Intelligence Committee sharply criticized
prewar intelligence on whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The
report did not address Bush's role, but Kerry said, "as commander in chief, the
president of the United States must take responsibility for what happens on his
or her watch."

The four-term Massachusetts senator said that nearly three years after the
Sept. 11 attacks, "this president has not taken action sufficient to fix the
intelligence problems that have plagued us."

Outlining his own proposals, Kerry repeated his call for creating a director of
central intelligence who would oversee all facets of the nation's intelligence
operations. He also proposed at least doubling spending for clandestine
operations, improving interagency coordination and accelerating reforms at the
FBI to improve its handling of domestic intelligence.

But Kerry stopped short of supporting a proposal by his running mate, Sen. John
Edwards of North Carolina, to create a new domestic intelligence agency similar
to the British MI5 agency. Supporters of a new agency say the FBI has been more
concerned historically about criminal investigations than intelligence;
opponents fear a domestic spy agency threatening Americans' privacy.

Edwards made it clear later at a Democratic fund-raiser in Los Angeles that he
had backed away from that approach, proposed during last winter's primary
elections, and that Kerry's plan was "our plan."

He said the plan was "just plain common sense."

"It's been almost three hears since 9/11. It won't take us three years to put
the reforms in place," Edwards vowed.


07/17/04 17:24 EDT

Updated: 05:59 PM EDT
If President, Kerry Would Launch Pre-Emptive Strike
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, AP

WASHINGTON (July 17) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said he
would be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike against terrorists if he had
adequate intelligence of a threat.

Kerry on Friday offered some support for one of the most controversial aspects
of President Bush's national security policy, even as he criticized the
president for not reforming intelligence agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks.

"Am I prepared as president to go get them before they get us if we locate them
and have the sufficient intelligence? You bet I am," he said at a news
conference at his Washington headquarters.

The Bush administration laid out the doctrine of pre-emption months before the
Iraq war began in March 2003. It argued that the United States cannot rely on
its vast arsenal to deter attacks and must be willing to strike first against
potential threats. Critics of the policy say the Iraq war shows how the country
could be driven to war by flawed intelligence.

Kerry said the intelligence needs to be improved so that the word of a U.S.
president "is good enough for people across the world again."

But he added, "I will never allow any other country to veto what we need to do
and I will never allow any other institution to veto what we need to do to
protect our nation."

Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt complained that Kerry proposed
cuts in intelligence spending while in the Senate. "John Kerry's attack is
another example of his flailing efforts to defend a record that is out of the
mainstream," Schmidt said.

Kerry spoke one week after the Senate Intelligence Committee sharply criticized
prewar intelligence on whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The
report did not address Bush's role, but Kerry said, "as commander in chief, the
president of the United States must take responsibility for what happens on his
or her watch."

The four-term Massachusetts senator said that nearly three years after the
Sept. 11 attacks, "this president has not taken action sufficient to fix the
intelligence problems that have plagued us."

Outlining his own proposals, Kerry repeated his call for creating a director of
central intelligence who would oversee all facets of the nation's intelligence
operations. He also proposed at least doubling spending for clandestine
operations, improving interagency coordination and accelerating reforms at the
FBI to improve its handling of domestic intelligence.

But Kerry stopped short of supporting a proposal by his running mate, Sen. John
Edwards of North Carolina, to create a new domestic intelligence agency similar
to the British MI5 agency. Supporters of a new agency say the FBI has been more
concerned historically about criminal investigations than intelligence;
opponents fear a domestic spy agency threatening Americans' privacy.

Edwards made it clear later at a Democratic fund-raiser in Los Angeles that he
had backed away from that approach, proposed during last winter's primary
elections, and that Kerry's plan was "our plan."

He said the plan was "just plain common sense."

"It's been almost three hears since 9/11. It won't take us three years to put
the reforms in place," Edwards vowed.

07/17/04 17:24 EDT