WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The Bush campaign dismissed an adviser on veterans issues late Saturday after learning he was part of an independent group that has been running anti-Kerry ads,news reports said Sunday.

    The Bush campaign said Kenneth Cordier, a retired colonel and former prisoner of war, who appeared in an advertisement to be aired by the anti-Kerry group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, would on longer serve in his voluntary position on President George W. Bush's veterans steering committee.

    A spokesman for the Bush campaign said Cordier had not previously informed the campaign that he had been involved with the group, but the campaign of Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, said the matter provided evidence supporting its complaint to the Federal Election Commission alleging illegal cooperation between the Bush campaign and the independent group.

    Cordier's connection to the Bush campaign was made public Saturday by the Kerry campaign, which found that Cordier had been named on the Bush web site earlier this month as a member of the veterans committee but that his name had subsequently been removed.

    The ads by the Swift Boat group, named for the type of boat Kerry commanded during the Vietnam War, has been causing a furiousdebate between the campaigns, with Kerry demanding that Bush condemn the ads that suggest that Kerry did not earn his war decorations and the he betrayed his fellow veterans by his later anti-war activity.

    Under US law, groups like the one that sponsored the anti-Kerry advertisement are required to remain independent of either candidate's campaign. Enditem