The campaign of Sen. John Kerry yesterday accused NASA of leaking a widely circulated photo that shows the candidate wrapped from top to bottom in a baby blue "bunny suit," implying that it was a "dirty trick."
One campaign official told The Washington Times last night: "All I can say is it was not an authorized release."
But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration told Fox News that the Kerry team saw the photos before publication and passed on their release.
A NASA spokesman told the top-rated cable network that the images were given to the Kerry campaign to review before several were posted on the Kennedy Space Center Web site.
In no way were photographs "leaked," the spokesman said.
But campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in an interview with Fox, "This was a leaked photo."
She said the campaign never was told that the photographs, which are drawing ridicule and comparison with the Michael Dukakis "tank" photo on the Internet and talk radio, would be taken during a campaign stop at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
When interviewer Brit Hume asked Miss Cahill whether "you smell a dirty trick here" from the apolitical space agency, she did not answer directly, but rather asked rhetorically: "What do you think?"
"This was a legitimate tour of a NASA facility, and this photograph came out of absolutely nowhere. We were surprised then. We aren't surprised now," she said.
According to the Fox News Web site (www.foxnews.com), the NASA spokesman said the space agency provided a photographer to document Mr. Kerry's tour, but said NASA released no images directly to the press.

By Kathryn Watson - The Washington Times
Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department employee whose hasty dismissal by the Obama administration sparked a national uproar over race, said Thursday that she will sue the conservative blog mogul who posted the edited video that led to her removal. Published 12:39 p.m. July 29, 2010

By Shaun Waterman - The Washington Times
updated 1 hour, 47 minutes ago
The Obama administration is asking Congress for new powers to fight identity fraud after undercover government investigators obtained U.S. passports using forged documents for the second time in less than two years. Published 1:25 p.m. July 29, 2010
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