- The murk surrounding Bernard Kerik, whose nomination
to be homeland security chief by President George Bush fell apart a week
ago, thickened yesterday amid reports he used an apartment that had been
donated for use by exhausted 11 September rescue workers for conducting
his extra-marital liaisons.
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- The revelation, carried in the New York Times, will only
add to the embarrassment of the White House, which apparently failed sufficiently
to vet the background of Mr Kerik, who served as New York police chief
under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
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- Since Mr Kerik abruptly withdrew himself from consideration
last weekend - conceding tax problems over a former Mexican nanny without
proper immigration papers - aides to Mr Bush have squirmed as new ethical
and professional questions from his past have surfaced almost daily.
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- Media reports have focused in particular on ties between
Mr Kerik and a New Jersey construction company, Interstate Industrial Corp,
which allegedly had connections to the Mafia, as well as on reports that
while serving as police chief he conducted two extra-marital affairs at
the same time.
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- Mr Kerik, who married his third wife in 1998, may now
have to answer questions about his use of the donated unit in an apartment
tower just two blocks from the World Trade Centre that he allegedly used
to conduct trysts with one of the women, Judith Regan, a well known figure
in publishing. The apartment is said to have been one of several in the
neighbourhood donated as space for emergency service, rescue workers and
Red Cross personnel to use for rest in the weeks after the 11 September
tragedy.
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- It seems that quite soon after the attacks, however,
Mr Kerik asked that one be set aside for his personal use. The apartment
in Battery Park City, now being described as a love nest, has views directly
onto the hole at ground zero.
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- The affair with Ms Regan reportedly spanned about a year
when she was publishing Mr Kerik's 2001 memoir, The Lost Son: A Life in
Pursuit of Justice. Among those suffering from the fall-out of the nomination
debacle is Mr Giuliani, considered by some to be a future Republican presidential
candidate. He has more than once in the past few days offered a personal
apology to the White House for his role in pushing the nomination of Mr
Kerik.
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- Since Mr Kerik and Mr Giuliani left their positions in
the New York City government at the end of 2001, both have been running
a security and financial consultancy and have accumulated substantial private
wealth in the past three years.
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- Described in the American media as a tough-talking former
street cop whose years as an undercover narcotics officer were very successful,
Mr Kerik earned the admiration of Mr Bush after the 2001 attacks, by training
local police officers in Iraq last year and energetically campaigning for
the President in the recent campaign.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=593666
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