Bush Campaign Lawyer Quits Over Ties to Ads Group

Syrian teenagers protest in central Damascus in support of Arab prisoners on a hunger strike for better conditions in Israeli jails, August 23, 2004. Israel declared its hospitals off-limits on Tuesday to the 2,800 Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, saying they could be treated in makeshift facilities behind bars if taken ill. A top lawyer for President  Bush's re-election campaign resigned on Wednesday after  disclosing he provided legal advice to a group that accuses  Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry of lying about his Vietnam War record. Benjamin Ginsberg was the second person to quit the Bush  campaign over ties to the group, called Swift Boat Veterans for  Truth. The Bush's campaign insists it has no relationship with  the group and has denied Kerry's charge the president's  re-election team is using such "front groups." "I have decided to resign as national counsel to your  campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated  military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of  the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you  and the country should be focusing," Ginsberg wrote in a letter  to Bush. [more ]