Website vandals hit book on Kerry

For the second day in a row, computer vandals altered an online bookstore's website that was selling a popular new book harshly critical of presidential candidate and Massachusetts Democratic Senator John F. Kerry.

The website attacks, at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, underscore the passions unleashed by the new book, "Unfit For Command." They also raise questions about the security of two of the Internet's most popular retail sites.

"Unfit For Command," set for publication next week from Regnery Publishing Inc., claims that Kerry's behavior as a young naval officer during the Vietnam War disqualifies him for the presidency. According to promotional materials released by Regnery, the book will claim that two of the three Purple Hearts Kerry received in Vietnam were awarded for minor self-inflicted wounds, and not as a result of enemy action. Prerelease orders for the book have made it the top-selling title at the leading Internet bookstore, Amazon.com, and the number two seller at Barnes & Noble.com.

But yesterday someone altered the Amazon.com Web page devoted to the book. The intruder added a quote from Arizona Republican US Senator John McCain. "Dishonest and dishonorable . . . none of these individuals served on the boat [Kerry] commanded," the quote read.

McCain made these remarks not about the book, but about a television ad aired by Kerry opponents that repeats some of the book's charges. In any case, the quote did not belong in the description of the book, and Amazon officials removed it within hours.

"It was information that should not have been posted for this particular book," said Amazon spokeswoman Patricia Smith. She said that the intruder used a feature on the site that is supposed to be used only by book publishers.

While the Kerry campaign has denounced the television ad based on the book's contents, it has not issued a formal response to the book.

Yesterday, someone managed a more aggressive alteration at the Barnes & Noble.com site. This time, the photo of the book's jacket, featuring an older Kerry, was replaced with a photo of Kerry as a young man in Vietnam, surrounded by fellow servicemen. And the book's title was changed to "Fit For Command." Within hours, Barnes & Noble had restored the original jacket photo.

Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said the phony book jacket was attached to a forged piece of e-mail.

Without verifying the source of the message, the website operators published the phony image. After hearing from visitors to the site, Barnes & Noble restored the original image.

Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan. said the candidate's campaign had nothing to do with the attacks. "We don't know anything about it," he said.

The Bush campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.