Kerry says he'd fight better terror war

PHILADELPHIA — John Kerry said Tuesday that he will fight a more effective war on terror than President Bush, and he encouraged the Sept. 11 commission to keep working to ensure its proposed reforms are adopted.

With the two candidates determined to project a proactive image on the commission's work, President Bush has assembled a task force to review the 10-member panel's work. Kerry said he should implement the five-day-old proposals immediately, and that the commission should be extended another 18 months.

"Backpedaling and going slow is something that America can't afford," Kerry said at a morning rally in Norfolk, Va. "It will take real, bipartisan leadership and real action to protect this country of ours. You can't treat the commission's report as something that you hope will go away."

Kerry, speaking before the USS Wisconsin in the port city, said Bush could immediately implement many of the commission's recommendations by executive order. He said Congress should do its part and act swiftly when legislation or funding is needed.

"Now that the 9/11 commission has done its job, we need to do our job," Kerry said. "We understand the threat. We have a blueprint for action. We have the strength as a nation to do what has to be done. The only thing we don't have is time. We need to do it now."

Later, at his final campaign stop before the Democratic National Convention where is he is to be nominated for president, Kerry declared, "I will and I can fight a more effective war on terror than George Bush is."

The bipartisan Sept. 11 commission issued its final report Thursday. Under legislation that President Bush signed in March, the commission is to formally dissolve Aug. 26.

Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, said Republican chairman Thomas Kean supported giving the commission additional time to work.

"He hoped there would be some way to continue to speak out and take our case to Congress and the American public," Felzenberg said Tuesday.

Kerry spokesman David Wade said Kerry spoke to the commission's vice chairman, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., and Hamilton was supportive of continuing the work.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold its first hearing on the panel's recommendations Friday. Several other congressional hearings are planned.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan has said Bush could act within days on the report.