WASHINGTON, 30 October 2004 — As federal investigators launched a new probe into whether the Bush administration improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused Bush of ignoring blatant price gouging by the company Vice President Dick Cheney ran from 1995 to 2000.

After days of focusing on tons of lost Iraqi explosives, Democrats said yesterday the FBI probe of Halliburton is evidence of Bush administration giving special favors to special interests.

“We need a president and a vice president of the United States who consistently stand up for the interests of the American people, and that’s not what we’re seeing right now,” Democratic running mate John Edwards said on CBS yesterday morning.

Halliburton has already been criticized over contracts awarded in Iraq’s reconstruction and after an investigation into reports the company overcharged American taxpayers for fuel.

The Kerry campaign lost no time this week seizing the issue: “So much for restoring honor and integrity to the Oval Office,’’ Kerry spokesman David Wade said.

On Thursday, news reports said FBI agents have begun collecting documents tied to the contracts in government offices and were seeking to interview a top army contracting officer.

Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers’ chief contracting officer, went public last weekend with allegations that her agency unfairly awarded Halliburton subsidiary KBR no-bid contracts.

Meanwhile, the Kerry campaign launched a new ad, “Cheney Halliburton,” which began airing this week in Oregon and other battleground states to criticize the administration and its no-bid contracts with the company.

The ad suggests a conflict of interest for Cheney because he collects deferred benefits from the time he was chief executive of Halliburton, a multinational company that provides reconstruction and other services in Iraq.

“As president, I will stop companies like Halliburton from profiting at the expense of our troops and taxpayers,” Kerry said in a statement released by his campaign. “I will stop companies from receiving no-bid contracts from the government when the president or vice president is still receiving compensation from that company.”

The new ad also contends the administration’s decision to award contracts to Halliburton without competitive bidding wasted taxpayer money that could have been used to create jobs and provide health care.

The Kerry campaign wants to link Cheney and Halliburton to President Bush’s management of military and security operations in Iraq, which the Bush-Cheney campaign insists isn’t there.

“John Kerry’s latest personal attack has as much accuracy as a Kitty Kelley novel,” said Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt, referring to the exposé author who recently released a book on the Bush family.

Wendy Hall, a Halliburton spokeswoman, dismissed the allegation as election politics.

“The old allegations have once again been recycled, this time one week before the election,” she said.

The FBI has declined to comment on the allegations that it is now investigating the matter.