Witness confirms that Kerry rescued soldier under fire

By Seattle Times news services

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Wayne Langhofer told The Washington Post that he was manning a machine gun in a Swift boat behind Kerry's and saw gunfire from both banks of the Bay Hap River as Kerry reached over the bow to pull Special Forces soldier James Rassmann into the boat, the basis for Kerry's Bronze Star.

"Unfit for Command," a book by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, and a television ad by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an anti-Kerry group, have questioned circumstances under which Kerry won several medals, including the Bronze Star. They maintain that Kerry was not under fire when he pulled Rassmann from the water.

Until now, Kerry's version of acting under fire had come only from crewmen on his boat. The Post quoted Langhofer as saying he was approached by leaders of Swift Boat Veterans several months ago but declined to join them.

Kerry, meanwhile, urged President Bush last night to "stand up and stop" what he called personal attacks on Kerry's combat record. The Bush campaign has said it had nothing to do with the ads.

At a fund-raiser in East Hampton, N.Y., Kerry said the attacks have intensified "because in the last months they have seen me climbing in America's understanding that I know how to fight a smarter and more effective war" against terrorists. "That's why they're attacking my credibility. That's why they've personally gone after me. The president needs to stand up and stop that. The president needs to have the courage to talk about it."

Meanwhile, the Bush campaign said yesterday that it had dismissed an adviser on veterans issues after learning that he is a member of the Swift Boat Veterans and appears in an anti-Kerry ad to be aired next week.

The Bush campaign said retired Air Force Col. Kenneth Cordier served in a voluntary position on Bush's veterans steering committee. A Bush spokesman said Cordier had not informed the campaign that he had been involved with the group.

Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, demanded earlier in the day that Bush call for the ads to be pulled because they are lies funded by Bush allies.

"This is a moment of truth for George W. Bush," Edwards told a cheering crowd in Roanoke, Va. "We're going to see what kind of man he is and what kind of leader he is. ... We want to hear from the president of the United States. We don't want to hear rhetoric. We want to hear three words: 'Stop these ads!' "

The Kerry campaign also unveiled an Internet advertisement featuring a segment of a February 2000 debate between Bush and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during the South Carolina primary in which McCain took Bush to task for playing host to an event at which the leader of a "fringe" veterans group questioned McCain's military service in Vietnam.
 
"That fringe veteran said John McCain had abandoned the veterans — I don't know if you can understand this, George, but that really hurts," McCain is shown as saying to Bush at the debate. "You should be ashamed."

The spot, to be e-mailed to 200,000 veterans activists, posted on veterans Web sites and sent to more than 1 million Kerry supporters, includes an on-screen heading that says, "George Bush is up to his old tricks."

Compiled from The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Associated Press.