-->He dropped out of high school, enlisted in the Army and worked as a private security guard in Saudi Arabia and a jail warden in Passaic County, N.J. In 1985, he joined the New York City Police Department, becoming an undercover narcotics officer who sported a ponytail and diamond earrings when he worked the streets. He went on to run the New York City Correction Department, where he established a reputation as an energetic reformer, before taking over as police commissioner in 2000.

After helping to oversee the city's response to the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, he left office a few months later, at the end of Rudolph W. Giuliani's second term as mayor, and went to Iraq last year at the behest of the White House to help the Iraqis set up a security force.

Now a partner in Mr. Giuliani's consulting firm, Mr. Kerik campaigned this year for Mr. Bush. A spokeswoman for the firm said Mr. Kerik was not available for comment.

In an autobiography published in 2001, Mr. Kerik recounted being abandoned by his mother as a young boy and learning much later that she had been a prostitute who died in an apparent homicide. In recent months he has toyed with the idea of running for governor of his native New Jersey, an idea he had to abandon because he did not meet the seven-year residency requirement. More recently he has been promoted by some Republicans as a candidate for the United States Senate from New Jersey.

(aus NYT)