WASHINGTON, Aug 8: Aides for Democratic Senate incumbent Joe Lieberman alleged on Tuesday that his campaign website had been disabled by a cyber attack, and pointed the finger at supporters backing his rival in the race.

“For the past 24 hours the Friends for Joe Lieberman’s website and email has been totally disrupted and disabled, we believe that this is the result of a coordinated attack by our political opponents,” said Sean Smith, deputy press secretary for the campaign.

“The campaign has notified the US attorney and the Connecticut Chief State’s Attorney,” Smith said in a statement, adding, “the campaign will be filing a formal complaint reflecting our concerns.”

Smith made a direct appeal to challenger Ned Lamont, the front runner in the Democratic primary election, to call off any of his supporters who might be behind the attack.

“We call on Ned Lamont to make an unqualified statement denouncing this kind of dirty campaign trick and to demand whoever is responsible to cease and desist immediately,” Smith said.

Lieberman, 64 — Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 presidential election won by now-President George W. Bush — is hoping to eke out a come from behind victory to avoid being unseated by Lamont, a millionaire businessman.

Although a stalwart Democrat, Lieberman has been a strong supporter of the Republican administration’s war in Iraq, an unpopular position in the left-leaning state.

Campaign officials said the loss of email and website access could seriously suppress support for Lieberman, making it more difficult to coordinate the get-out-the-vote effort and track precinct-by-precinct developments.

“Any attempt to suppress voter participation and undermine the voting process on Election Day is deplorable and has no place in our democracy,” Smith said.—AFP