US President Bush takes the stage for his third fund-raiser during a short two-day visit to California. Bush's campaign launched an advertising blitz that came under immediate attack for using images from the September 11 terrorist strikes. Photo by AFP
US President George Bush 's campaign launched an advertising blitz that came under immediate attack for using images from the September 11 terrorist strikes. Bush meanwhile went on the offensive against Democratic contender Senator John Kerry saying the Massachusetts lawmaker was incapable of defending America against terrorists. Relatives of the dead from the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, along with firefighters' unions, accused the president of using pictures of firemen working in the debris of the twin World Trade Center towers for political gain. The Bush campaign insisted, however, that the adverts -- to be aired in 17 states that could prove decisive in the November 2 presidential election -- were a "very tasteful" portrayal of the nation's shared trauma.