Free Republic

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton announced Wednesday that he believes Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might try to influence next month's U.S. presidential election through a terrorist attack or some less dramatic tactic. "With so much at stake in these elections, Bin Laden will probably attempt to make his opinion count," wrote Bratton in an article published on the opinion page of the New York Daily News. Bratton co-wrote the article with R.P. Eddy, former director of counter-terrorism at the National Security Council.

They made for successful but jealous partners, a pair of outsize talents and egos whose relationship crumbled more than a decade ago in a series of public spats. But as Rudolph W. Giuliani runs for president, he appears to be mending fences with William J. Bratton, his former police commissioner in New York and now the police chief of Los Angeles. On a campaign swing through Los Angeles on Monday, Mr. Giuliani met privately with Mr. Bratton, according to aides to both men. “The last time the two met was in 1996 in New York,” Lt. Paul Vernon, a Los...