[Gimpy]

From wire services:

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"Bush is afraid to let us see the dead being brought back from Iraq," one fire fighter in New York said yesterday. "But he doesn't mind at showing the dead at the twin towers to further his campaign, it makes me mad as hell !."

Firefighters and some families of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks, have criticized the use of the images as cynical exploitation of a national tragedy.

The International Association of Fire Fighters Union approved a resolution asking the Bush campaign to pull the advertisements, the union's spokesman, Jeff Zack, told The Associated Press. The resolution also urges Bush to "apologize to the families of firefighters killed on 9/11 for demeaning the memory of their loved ones in an attempt to curry support for his re-election."

Harold Schaitberger, president of the union, said today that the advertisements were "disgraceful" because the Bush administration had not, in the opinion of the union, done enough to ensure that fire departments around the country have been adequately staffed and equipped. "I recall the president early on saying that he would never utilize the terrible tragedy of 9/11 for political purposes," he said.

"Bush is calling on the biggest disaster in our country's history, and indeed in the history of the fire service, to win sympathy for his campaign," Mr. Schaitberger said in a statement that echoed his initial reaction on Wednesday.

"It makes me sick," Colleen Kelly, who leads a group of victims families called Peaceful Tomorrows, told The Associated Press. Her brother died in the attacks. "Would you ever go to someone's grave site and use that as an instrument of politics?" she asked. "That truly is what Ground Zero represents to me."

"I wouldn't have a problem with the president using 9/11 if I thought that he had done everything in his power, first off, to thwart the attack and then, on the morning of 9/11 itself, had a full sense of plan once the attacks were under way," Patty Casazza, who lost her husband John at the World Trade Center, told the CBS News Early Show. "Additionally, after 9/11, the president has done everything in his power to thwart the investigation into the death of 3,000 people."

Barbara Minervino, a Republican from Middletown, N.J., who lost her husband, Louis, in the attacks, questioned whether Mr. Bush was "capitalizing on the event."

David Potorti, an independent from Cary, N.C., whose brother Jim died in the north tower, called the campaign's use of the images audacious.

"It's an insult to use the place where my brother died in an ad," Potorti said. "I would be just as outraged if any politician did this."

Casazza, who dislikes the ads, feels the president's resistance to the panel probing the attacks undermines his claims of leadership.

"I don't understand why he wouldn't want an investigation into the death of 3,000 people that occurred on his watch," she said, noting that Mr. Bush for months resisted calls for an independent investigation. "The president is only willing himself to be heard by two members the commission, not under oath, and for one hour. That equates to 1.3 seconds per victim who died on 9/11. "

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