What You Might Not Know About Rudy Giuliani

SURE, YOU KNOW THAT RUDY GIULIANI WAS MAYOR OF NEW YORK, BUT YOU MAY NOT KNOW . . .

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1. Usually it's the business client of a major firm who insists on confidentiality. But when Giuliani's security consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, signs on a client, it makes the client sign a confidentiality agreement barring the disclosure of details about the relationship. When reporters for The Washington Post interviewed the firm's clients earlier this year, they kept getting the same answer: We can't talk about it. A Giuliani aide said that the agreement is common for consulting firms seeking to protect proprietary "business processes and methodologies."

2. In 2003, two years after Giuliani left the mayor's office, New York banned smoking in most public places, including restaurants and bars. Giuliani, who is a cigar aficionado, was no fan. During a trip to Ireland later that year, he encouraged the Irish government to reject a similar smoking ban there. "I think it should be a matter of choice for the individual whether he or she wishes to smoke or not," he told the Irish media.

3. Giuliani sometimes faces criticism that his experience and boasting are too New York-centric. So when it came time to identify the four or five most internationally known Americans, whom did he pick? Three New Yorkers, of course -- starting with himself. "I'm probably one of the four or five best-known Americans in the world," he told reporters during a stop in London in September. Asked to name the others, he started to answer, "Bill Clinton, Hillary," then was whisked away by aides before he could finish.

-- John Solomon