Bush Treading On The Dead of 9-11 for Personal Gain:
September 11 families say Bush campaign treading on the dead
NEW YORK (AFP) - Pressure intensified on George W. Bush over his reelection campaign's use of September 11 images, with victims' families urging the president to stop treading "on the bodies of our dead."
Some family members told a press conference in New York that they were "outraged" by election TV adverts that showed the devastation at the World Trade Center site, and the body of a fireman being carried from the rubble.
"Ground Zero is a sacred site," said Rita Lasar, a steering committee member of the group, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
Lasar, whose brother was killed when the trade center's twin towers collapsed, urged the Republican president to "find some other way to run a campaign without stepping on the bodies of our dead."
The advertisements, which began airing on Thursday, have kicked up a political storm, with the Bush campaign defending itself against charges of exploiting the tragedy of September 11 for political gain.
Bob McIlvaine, whose 26-year-old son was killed in the terrorist strikes, said the ads were "obscene" and appealed to Bush to pull them out of circulation.
"It upsets me tremendously that Bobby, my son, is being used as a political pawn to be manipulated and at times abused. It truly makes me sick," McIlvaine said. |
