Kerry blasts war record critics

The White House has consistently denied any linkages between Bush's campaign and the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and said it respects Kerry's wartime service, but refused categorically to repudiate the charges against him.

In a statement Friday, the Kerry campaign said it had "filed a legal complaint against Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) before the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for violating the law with inaccurate ads that are illegally coordinated with the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign."

The complaint asks that the Republican National Committee, Bush's reelection campaign, and the veterans group "be enjoined from further violations, be required to repay their illegal contributions and be fined the maximum amount permitted by law."

SBVT spokesman John O'Neill dismissed the complaint as "completely frivolous."

"Sadly, it represents a direct attack by large law firms, employed by Senator Kerry, on his fellow veterans," O'Neill said in a statement.

"Even more sadly, it represents a direct attack by Kerry on the right of prisoners of war to be able to express to the American people their views and factual accounts of their own imprisonment and Kerry's impact on them."

It remained unclear, however, whether the Kerry campaign's surprise legal attack would force the SBVT, which unleashed a second television commercial against Kerry on Friday, to withdraw that advertisement as well as a first ad released in early August.

Kerry, who won five medals as a gunboat commander in the war, has used his combat exploits to tout his national security credentials in the first presidential campaign since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But there were signs that the group's first advertisement, shown in select states but enjoying national media coverage, had taken its toll on his support among fellow veterans he hopes will help him win the November 2 election.

The Kerry campaign statement cited recent press reports about the group and public statements by some of its members to buttress its claim of improper ties to the Republican party and Bush's campaign.

The New York Times on Friday reported that there is a "web of connections" between the Swift Boat group and the "Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove."