For a man with ambitions that could run to the White House, the last thing Rudy Giuliani needed was to let the world know about his weaknesses: that stormy failed second marriage, that association with a disgraced official and those inconvenient views on the issues of the day.
But that is precisely what happened to the former mayor of New York, who regularly leads the opinion polls of potential contenders for the presidency in 2008, when a 140-page strategy dossier was obtained by the New York Daily News.
Giuliani has said he does not intend to seek the presidency -- a claim exposed by the dossier's ambitious program of raising US$25 million by the end of March by tapping professional athletes as well as corporate titans such as Rupert Murdoch.
To the scarcely concealed delight yesterday of aides for Senator John McCain, Giuliani's biggest rival for the Republican leadership, the document's unknown author also admitted that Giuliani could decide to drop out of the race if faced with "insurmountable" obstacles.
The admission was hardly the message Giuliani would want to send to potential donors in the early days of a campaign.
Giuliani's steady demeanour following the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 elevated him to the national stage. It also led to a lucrative post-mayoral career as a security consultant.
Those claims to security expertise seemed a little tenuous yesterday after Giuliani's spokeswoman said the dossier was stolen from aboard a private plane, photocopied and then replaced.
She said the mayor was a victim of "dirty tricks."
But while Giuliani continues to lead the opinion polls -- regularly outperforming McCain -- his staff remain uneasy.
False comfort
"False comfort with numbers," said one note written in the margin, according to the New York Daily News.
Giuliani also carries considerable baggage. He is on his third marriage and his former police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, has been hit by financial scandal.
His support for abortion rights, gun control and civil unions for same-sex couples puts him at odds with the religious right, which will have a powerful say during the Republican primaries.
"All will come out -- in the worst possible light," the document says. "US$100 million against us on this stuff."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not